Investigation of Silver Strip Corrosion on Jet Fuels Subject to Contaminated RailContainers

In some cases, severe corrosion are found during silver strip testing to the jet fuels that are charged to rail containers. Investigation shows that the disqualifying corrosion attributes to elementary sulfur remained in the inner surface of the containers. The actual cleaning-up measurements are not sufficient to remove all the harmful sulfur from the surfaces. Comparative study indicates high relativity between silverstrip corrosion and sulfur content detected in the method of mercury dropping. When sulfur content of the residual oil at the container bottom exceeds 10 μg/g (mercury drop color change in 10 min), the silver strip corrosion test will surely come forth with disqualification of the jet fuels even though the containers are extensively cleaned up. So mercury drop test of container residuals is a rapid and flexible and economical way to determine container's applicability for further jet fuel transportation. Contaminated containers can be predefine by mercury dropping test before cleaning resulting in better assured fuel quality.