CSC 2018 – 101st Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition, Edmonton, AB, Canada, May 27-31, 2018

Title:
Analysis of Biodiesel-Diesel Blended Fuels Using Ultrafast Gas Chromatography (UFGC) and Chemometric Methods

Authors:
Amber M Hupp, College of the Holy Cross (Primary Presenter)
Joseph Perron, Falcon Analytical
Ned Roques, Falcon Analytical
John Crandall, Falcon Analytical
Scott Ramos, Infometrix
Brian Rohrback, Infometrix

Division:
Analytical Chemistry (AN)

Symposium:
Analytical Separations: Theory, Applications, Instrumentation

Abstract:
Biodiesel is added to diesel fuel in concentrations ranging from 2 to 35%, mostly for the purposes of reducing greenhouse gases. The resulting binary blended fuels (labeled B2-B35) have lowered hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions compared to petrodiesel. Traditional analysis methods utilize gas chromatography (GC) with a long, polar column leading to separation times of thirty to sixty minutes.  As a faster alternative, we propose using ultrafast GC (UFGC) to evaluate binary fuels with concentrations ranging from 1-20% with various biodiesel feedstocks (soybean, tallow, safflower, sunflower, camelina, palm, etc). A short mid-polarity column (MXT-50, 4m x 180 mm x 0.2 mm, Restek) was used to provide optimal separation of the saturated fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) in the biodiesel while still allowing for retention of the variety of components in the diesel. Several chemometric tools, including Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Partial Least Squares (PLS), were used to provide group analysis of feedstock type and concentration.