What “EN 590
10 ppm” pins down.
It is the phrase in almost every diesel enquiry we receive, and it settles far less than the people writing it assume.
EN 590 is the European standard for automotive diesel fuel. It sets limits for a long list of properties — ignition quality, density, viscosity, flash point, water content, lubricity and more. The “10 ppm” that gets appended to it refers to exactly one of those: a maximum sulphur content of 10 mg per kg, which is what makes the product ultra-low sulphur diesel.
That single number has become shorthand for the whole grade. It should not be. Two cargoes can both be honestly described as EN 590 10 ppm and still behave completely differently in the buyer’s tank.
The limits that are fixed
Some parameters are the same whatever the grade, and these are the ones worth knowing by heart when you read an offer:
| Sulphur | max 10.0 mg/kg |
| Cetane number | min 51.0 |
| Density at 15 °C | 820.0 – 845.0 kg/m³ |
| Flash point | above 55 °C |
| Water content | max 200 mg/kg |
| Lubricity, wear scar | max 460 µm |
A cargo failing any of these is not EN 590, regardless of what the offer sheet says. This is also why the certificate of quality matters more than the description: the description is a claim, the certificate is a measurement.
The three things still open
Cold-flow grade. EN 590 does not define one diesel. It defines a family: temperate grades, identified by letter, and arctic classes, identified by number. They differ in cold filter plugging point — the temperature at which the fuel stops passing through a filter. A grade perfectly correct for the Gulf will gel in a Scandinavian winter, and an arctic class carries a different density range with it. An enquiry that does not state the destination climate has not really specified the product.
Biodiesel content. Standard EN 590 permits up to 7 % by volume of FAME — fatty acid methyl ester. For most road users that is a non-issue. For long-term storage, for marine applications, or for buyers whose national rules or equipment warranties exclude it, it is decisive. If you need it FAME-free, that has to be written into the contract; it is not implied by “EN 590”.
Density. The permitted band runs from 820 to 845 kg/m³. Product is bought by mass and moved by volume, and the conversion between the two runs through density at a reference temperature. Fifteen kilograms per cubic metre sounds like a detail until it is multiplied by thirty thousand tonnes.
“D2” appears constantly in offers circulating this market and is not a specification at all. There is no standards body behind it and no test method that confirms it. It is a trading nickname, loosely descended from a Soviet-era gasoil designation, and it commits the seller to nothing.
When an offer names D2 rather than EN 590 with a grade, ASTM D975 with a grade, or a specific national standard, that is worth noticing. See telling a real counterparty from a paper one.
What a complete enquiry looks like
The difference between a request we can price in a day and one that generates a week of email is usually four lines:
- Standard and grade — EN 590, temperate or arctic, with the cold-flow requirement stated
- FAME: permitted up to the standard limit, or excluded
- Quantity with its tolerance, and the delivery basis
- Destination market, because national rules may add requirements on top of the standard
Everything else — inspection regime, payment instrument, laycan — follows from there in the normal sequence.
FOB, CFR, CIF — who carries what · How independent inspection settles quality and quantity
Our clean products and their specifications are listed under products; the sequence a transaction runs through is set out in how we work.
Know the grade you need?
Send the specification, the volume and the destination market. We come back within one business day with a clear yes or no.