Tag Archives: GC–FID

1234-1240 V. Hönig, J. Táborský, M. Orsák and R. Ilves
Using gas chromatography to determine the amount of alcohols in diesel fuels
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Using gas chromatography to determine the amount of alcohols in diesel fuels

V. Hönig¹*, J. Táborský¹, M. Orsák¹ and R. Ilves²

¹Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Department of Chemistry, Kamýcká 129, 16521 Prague 6, Czech Republic
²Estonian University of Life Sciences, Institute of Technology, Kreutzwaldi 56, EE51014 Tartu, Estonia. *Correspondence: honig@af.czu.cz

Abstract:

The European Union tries to reduce carbon dioxide production and reduce fossil fuel consumption. One way to achieve this goal is adding biofuels to regular motor fuels. Biofuels also decrease the production of other harmful substances. This paper evaluates the identification of n-butanol and isobutanol in diesel fuel. The application of n-butanol to diesel fuel is currently being considered. Alcohols blended into diesel fuel have been shown to have a positive impact on solid particle production, smoke emission, etc. Bioethanol and biobutanol can be easily produced from waste products as second-generation biofuels. The experimental part of the paper focuses on the identification of n-butanol and isobutanol in diesel fuel, as it has been previously used for detecting bioethanol additions in diesel fuel. Test samples with the following composition were prepared: 10% of ethanol in diesel fuel; 5%, 10%, 20% of n-butanol in diesel fuel; 5% of n-butanol and 5% of isobutanol in diesel fuel; 10% of n-butanol and 10% of isobutanol in diesel fuel. This paper deals with the use of gas chromatography (GC) in the evaluation of motor fuels. GC analysis can provide a sort of a fuel ‘fingerprint’ that shows the approximate distillation profile and can reveal the presence of other foreign fractions. Regular evaluation procedures using gas chromatography for the determination of a diesel fuel’s quality unfortunately do not exist at the moment. As it is shown, GC could provide very valuable information in fuel quality assessment, making it the method of choice for this procedure.

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