Aspectrics EP-NIR Analyzer Achieves Fast and Accurate Simultaneous Measurement of Water, Methanol and Total Glycerin in Biodiesel Synthetic Samples

Aspectrics, Inc., the innovator of patented Encoded Photometric Near Infrared (EP-NIR) spectroscopy technology, has produced a new application note showing that its groundbreaking MultiComponent™ 2750 EP-NIR analyzer achieves precise, simultaneous measurement of water, methanol and total glycerin in B100 biodiesel samples.

US and European regulations define the maximum allowable concentrations of contaminants in B100 biodiesel finished product. The cost of sending non-compliant samples for third party laboratory testing can be as high as $1200/sample so pre-screening the samples using the Aspectrics EP-NIR analyzer eliminates non-compliant samples and achieves significant cost savings for biodiesel producers.

The new application note shows that the Aspectrics MultiComponent™ 2750 EP-NIR analyzer is a fast, non-destructive and cost-effective B100 quality control tool, when used in conjunction with an external halogen NIR source and an extended range 2mm pathlength process transmission probe. The application note entitled “Simultaneous Measurement of Water, Methanol and Total Glycerin in Biodiesel Synthetic Samples Using a MC2750 EP-NIR Spectrometer” is available to download free-of-charge via the article webpage.

Biodiesel synthetic samples were prepared using an orthogonal experimental design in order to achieve maximum variability of B100 composition, with a minimum number of calibration standards. All samples were analyzed in 4 replicates and calibration models using PLS1, PLS2 and PCR were developed using Thermo Scientific Grams AI 8.0 software. With regards to the measurement of water in B100, best analytical results were obtained using the PCR algorithmic approach while the PLS1 algorithmic approach was proven best for measuring methanol and glycerin. The method achieved 95% accuracy in all measurements. Furthermore, from a chemometrics viewpoint, it appeared that the pre-processing of the absorbance spectra had much more impact on improving the accuracy of measurement than switching from one multivariate algorithmic approach to the other.

Aspectrics’ innovative new EP-NIR analyzer offers a breakthrough in NIR analysis, facilitating ultra-fast scanning operation capable of acquiring an impressive 100 scans/second, resulting in high sample throughput, real-time quality control monitoring and extreme sensitivity through spectral averaging. The novel MultiComponent™ 2750 analyzer covers an unprecedented spectral range of 1375-2750nm, allowing users access to information rich combination bands between 1950nm and 2750nm.