Originally Posted By: chemman
As an analytical chemist who has worked in the field of synthetic fuels (my doctoral research) it would take many, many hours of sample preparation in order to isolate the various additives into enough groups in order to make any type of semi-qualitative analysis possible. In order to perform the semi-qualitative analysis, multiple procedures involving high performanace liguid chromatography - mass spectroscopy, gas chromatography - mass spectrometry, infrared spectroscopy analysis, nuclear magnetic resonanace spectroscopy, and perhaps several other methods of analysis would be required, and then add on many, many more hours of time to interpret and report on the results.
The cost to do this would essentially cost prohibitive for the average person.
Blackstone looks at the known elemental components of the various compounds that go into the various additive packages that are used to blend a final, finished oil product, and reports on those. These are known from various literature articles the scientists at the additive companies and the oil companies submit for publication. Also, different grades of crude oils will need different additive packages in order to make a finished product. Also, to complicate matters, it used to be (20 + years ago) that finished oils destined for sale in humid areas of the USA had somewhat different additive packages than finished products going to drier areas of the USA in order to keep the oils from creating that yucky creamy milky looking like substance one might see under an oil cap in the middle of winter.
Originally Posted By: kschachn
Originally Posted By: chemman
As an analytical chemist who has worked in the field of synthetic fuels (my doctoral research) it would take many, many hours of sample preparation in order to isolate the various additives into enough groups in order to make any type of semi-qualitative analysis possible. In order to perform the semi-qualitative analysis, multiple procedures involving high performanace liguid chromatography - mass spectroscopy, gas chromatography - mass spectrometry, infrared spectroscopy analysis, nuclear magnetic resonanace spectroscopy, and perhaps several other methods of analysis would be required, and then add on many, many more hours of time to interpret and report on the results.
The cost to do this would essentially cost prohibitive for the average person.
When I was in college I worked for a professor in the Chemistry department that also had a side job "reverse engineering" cleaning products for a local company. What you say above is true and even then for some complex mixtures it is still very difficult to determine the exact composition of some components. In the end it usually involves educated guessing based on experience and general knowledge of what is typically used in a particular product. Blackstone Labs is wholly incapable of reverse engineering a motor oil with their resources, and at the same time neither do they wish to do so. The OP's criticism of their response is inappropriate because the request to them was inappropriate in the first place.
This, 100x