Discrimination of the type of biodiesel/diesel blend (B5) using mid-infrared spectroscopy and PLS-DA

The objective of this work was to differentiate the type of biodiesel in mixtures with diesel in the ratio of 5% (v/v) in relation to the type of oil and alcohol used in the production process of the respective biofuel. For this purpose, the mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy combined with supervised chemometric tool, partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) was used. The distinction between six types of biodiesel/diesel blend was evaluated, in other words, Soybean Oil Ethyl Esters (SOEE), Jatropha Oil Methyl Esters (JOME), Used Frying Oil Methyl Esters (UFOME), Soybean Oil Methyl Esters (SOME), Used Frying Oil Ethyl Esters (UFOEE) and Jatropha Oil Ethyl Esters (JOEE). The PLS-DA models, showed excellent efficiency in the classification for each type of biodiesel, both in relation to type of oil as well as alcohol used in its production, with high levels of sensitivity and specificity for all classes, remitting to 100% correct classification. Therefore, the use of this methodology is a viable alternative to quality control of biodiesel because it allows identify the type of biodiesel present in biodiesel/diesel blend. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.