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The Identification and Quantification of Steryl Glucosides in Precipitates from Commercial Biodiesel
Author(s) -
Moreau Robert A.,
Scott Karen M.,
Haas Michael J.
Publication year - 2008
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 - 10.1007/s11746-008-1264-4
Subject(s) - biodiesel , chromatography detector , chromatography , transesterification , chemistry , high performance liquid chromatography , mass spectrometry , solvent , soybean oil , materials science , methanol , organic chemistry , food science , catalysis
There have been several discoveries of unexpected precipitates in manufacturing facilities, transport vessels, and storage tanks containing commercial biodiesel. In some cases these have been formed during storage at temperatures above the cloud point of the fuel. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and mass spectrometry (MS) methods were applied to 24 field receipt samples of solids from such biodiesels. The analyses revealed the presence of steryl glucosides (SG), common phytosterols (plant sterol) found in crude soybean oil and many other plant materials, in these biodiesel precipitates. Quantitative analysis of the solids revealed SG concentrations as high as 68 wt% of the provided material (which had not been previously washed with solvent to remove entrained biodiesel). In some samples no SG were present. In others they constituted all of the non‐biodiesel material present. Monacylglycerols and diacylglycerols, the products of incomplete transesterification of triacylglycerols, were also present in some samples. The normal phase and reverse phase methods described in this report could be used to analyze SG quantitatively from biodiesel precipitates with an HPLC instrument equipped with either an evaporative light‐scattering detector (ELSD) or a more common UV detector operating at 205 nm.