Determination of Biodiesel-Diesel Mixtures with near Infrared Spectrometry

Determination of Biodiesel-Diesel mixtures with Near Infrared Spectrometry

1Chemical Engineering Department University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez Campus

In recent years interest in alternative fuels have increased considerably due to environmental, national security and lately economic concerns. In the area of transportation, CO2, CO and SO2 emissions by diesel engines in trucks and higher fuel costs triggered the commercial development of biodiesel and other alternative fuels. Biodiesel is an alternative fuel obtained by the KOH catalyzed reaction between cooking oils and methanol, that can be mixed with diesel at a wide variety of concentrations. This includes B2, B5 and B20 corresponding to 2, 5 and 20% biodiesel concentrations.. These blends will result in the reduction of pollutants emissions to the atmosphere and increased lubrication. The latter will results in lower maintenance costs.

In Puerto Rico biodiesel blends are also been considered as an alternative transportation and stationary diesel application (i.e., diesel generators, boilers, etc) option. This will require a fast and reliable method to validate the biodiesel blends concentration in commercial products especially in the field. In this study a Near Infrared Spectrometer (NIR) was used to determine the concentrations of biodiesel and diesel blends. It was observed that it was possible to determine biodiesel-diesel mixtures concentrations using transmittance measurements at approximately 2199nm and 2072nm wavelengths with a high degree of correlation.

Keywords: NIR, biodiesel, blends, cooking oils.

(*)Corresponding author E-mail: Pabloinqu@gmail.com