Premium
Analysis of the Content of Fatty Acid Methyl Esters in Biodiesel by Fourier‐Transform Infrared Spectroscopy: Method and Comparison with Gas Chromatography
Author(s) -
Torres Alicia,
Fuentes Beatriz,
Rodríguez Karina E.,
Brito Andrea,
Díaz Laura
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of the american oil chemists' society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.512
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1558-9331
pISSN - 0003-021X
DOI - 10.1002/aocs.12350
Subject(s) - gas chromatography , biodiesel , en 14214 , biofuel , chemistry , biodiesel production , fourier transform infrared spectroscopy , biomass (ecology) , fatty acid , fatty acid methyl ester , chromatography , infrared spectroscopy , organic chemistry , waste management , catalysis , chemical engineering , agronomy , engineering , biology
The increasing importance of sustainability in energy production has led to a global commitment to the use of fuels derived from renewable biological sources, such as biodiesel produced from plant crops or biomass residues, that do not compete with human food for their production. For a biofuel to be considered biodiesel, it must satisfy the specifications described in the UNE 14214, with the UNE‐EN 14103 referring to the determination of fatty acid methyl ester content. This standard applies gas chromatography as an analytical technique. Gas chromatography is a widely used technique in the analysis of methyl ester although it has a number of drawbacks such as: long analysis times, a high consumption of high‐quality gases and internal standards, does not allow the analysis of different compounds with the same column, etc. From an industrial production point of view, is necessary to know the fatty acid methyl ester content in biodiesel samples quickly. This paper studies the development of an analytical method using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) as alternative to gas chromatography (GC), since it is a simple, rapid, and precise analytical technique to quantify fatty acid methyl ester content in biofuel samples.