The need for increased production capacity of sustainable transportation fuels from renewable resources such as biodiesel is greater than ever. Major economic powers such as the U.S, E.U, Brazil and most recently Canada all have adopted fuel standards with specific targets for biodiesel content in diesel fuel.  Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR) spectrometry is a rapid and precise method for the quantification of FAME in diesel fuel blends.

Significance:

There are two standard test methods for quantifying FAME in diesel blends: ASTM D7371 and EN 14078. Because FAME has a strong infrared absorption at around 1745 cm-1 (due to the ester carbonyl bond), a region where fossil diesel is transparent, infrared spectroscopy is ideally suited to this analysis. This test method can be applied to quantify FAME content in diesel fuel ranging from less than 1% to about 30%.