Performance-based Standards Unleash Innovation

Long-time ASTM International member Andy Pickard, Ph.D., P.Chem., a consultant based in British Columbia, Canada, currently serves as chair of the subcommittee on liquefied petroleum gas (D02.H0), part of Committee D02. Pickard says that performance-based standards define “the requirements that a product (of any sort) has to meet while leaving producers the freedom to develop new processes that can be cheaper, more sustainable, or more environmentally friendly.” He adds, “Performance-based product specifications encourage innovation.”
For the petroleum committee, performance based also means not restricting trade. The specification for 100 research octane number test fuel for automotive spark-ignition engines (D8076), for example, calls for a minimum research octane number of 100 — an indicator of how the fuel behaves in a running engine — without saying what chemicals must be used to make the fuel.
The same holds true in D02 specifications for aviation turbine fuels (D1655), diesel fuel oils (D975), and biodiesel fuel blendstock for middle distillate fuels (D6751). Most requirements define limits that the final product has to meet, not how the product will be made.
For D02, test methods can also be performance based. The test method for distillation of petroleum products and liquid fuels at atmospheric pressure (D86), for example, provides information about the properties and behavior of the fuel. The standard is written so that manual equipment or a range of automated equipment may be used. Pickard points out that “by contrast there are a number of test methods for determining cloud point — each method is written for a specific approach.”