MONITORING OF ADULTERANTS IN CRAMBE METHYL BIODIESEL IN MIXTURES WITH DIESEL, USING FT-MIR AND MULTIVARIATE CONTROL CHARTS BASED ON NET ANALYTE SIGNAL

Adulterants in biodiesel/diesel blends modifies its physical and chemical properties. In this work, Fourier Transform Mid-Infrared spectrometry (FT-MIR) and multivariate control charts based on Net Analyte Signal (NAS) were used to monitor the quality of Crambe methyl biodiesel in relation to the biodiesel content and the presence of adulterants. The calibration model was constructed from the decomposition of the instrumental signals of the calibration samples into three vectors: NAS, interference and residual. From these vectors, three control charts were built: (i) NAS chart to monitor the analyte of interest (Crambe methyl biodiesel); (ii) Interference chart to monitor the data matrix (all components in diesel without the analyte of interest); and (iii) Residual chart to monitor any non-systematic variations. To validate the calibration model, other groups of B10, BX and B10 samples adulterated by direct addition of soybean oil and used fry oil in the range of 4.85-30.13% (v/v) were used. All samples prepared in-quality specifics were correctly classified as "in-quality control" samples, and other samples were correctly classified as "out-of-quality control" samples. Therefore, the methodology developed proved to be efficient in monitoring the quality of this fuel and it can be used by supervisory and quality control agencies.