Issue 5, 2013

Fast chemical fingerprinting analysis for biodiesel/diesel blends using commercial solid phase extraction (SPE) cartridge and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS)

Abstract

Commercially available solid phase extraction (SPE) cartridges were combined with GCMS for fast cleanup and fractionation of biodiesel/diesel samples in oil fingerprinting analysis. Several commercially available SPE cartridges (e.g., silica gel/cyanopropyl (SiO2/C3–CN) and extractable petroleum hydrocarbons (EPH) fractionation cartridges), were employed for the fractionation of biodiesel/diesel blends into aliphatic, aromatic hydrocarbons, and fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs). The SiO2/C3–CN (1 g/0.5 g) SPE cartridge could not separate biodiesel from petroleum hydrocarbons effectively, however, the 5 g EPH SPE cartridge successfully separated blended samples into aliphatic, aromatic and FAME fractions by eluting with 15 mL of hexane, 15 mL of dichloromethylene (DCM)/hexane (1 : 1, v/v), and 18 mL of DCM, respectively. No cross-elution was observed among aliphatic, aromatic and FAME fractions when the loading mass of blends was less than 8 mg. The relative standard deviations (RSD) for five replicate SPEGCMS analyses of 5 mg of diesel blended with 20% biodiesel (volume/volume) and soybean oil ranged from 3.4% to 33.2%, 4.3% to 18.7% and 5.4% to 29.2% for selected alkane, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and FAMEs, respectively. The final recovery rates of surrogates for aliphatic, aromatic and FAME fractions ranged from 82.5 to 91.1%. This developed method was successfully used for the fingerprinting analysis of three simulated blend samples. The concentration profiles of target compounds and the blended level are both comparable to those obtained by the conventional silica gel column–GCMS method.

Graphical abstract: Fast chemical fingerprinting analysis for biodiesel/diesel blends using commercial solid phase extraction (SPE) cartridge and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS)

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
14 Oct 2012
Accepted
15 Dec 2012
First published
18 Dec 2012

Anal. Methods, 2013,5, 1205-1213

Fast chemical fingerprinting analysis for biodiesel/diesel blends using commercial solid phase extraction (SPE) cartridge and gas chromatographymass spectrometry (GCMS)

X. Ruan, Z. Yang, H. Xie, W. Xiong, Z. Pan and L. Chen, Anal. Methods, 2013, 5, 1205 DOI: 10.1039/C2AY26191J

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements