A2 Technologies has announced that its Pal and iPal FTIR analysers are gaining rapid acceptance for measuring biodiesel (percent fatty acid methyl esters) in diesel fuel.
The analysers are said to be particularly helpful in applications where low-level contamination of diesel fuel by fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) is problematic.
Diesel fuel containing up to five per cent biodiesel meets the ASTM D975 standard, which does not require disclosure of the biodiesel level, and this can be a significant issue for certain diesel fuel users.
A2 has developed an enhanced method for determining contamination levels of FAME in diesel.
This method combines the more sensitive IR sampling interface specified in EN 14078 with the universal algorithm and sample set specified in ASTM D7371.
This enables the Pal systems to quickly and accurately predict the percentage of biodiesel in diesel fuel in the range from 0.025-20 per cent.
In round-robin testing, the accuracy of this method has been found to be superior to other methods, especially for measuring low levels of biodiesel.
The Pal systems use A2's TumblIR IR transmission technology to provide the 100 micron path length specified in the EN14078 method.
The TumblIR sampling system is said to eliminate the difficulties associated with using traditional IR transmission cells and is easy to use.
Measurement of percent FAME is achieved by placing a drop of diesel on the TumblIR lower window, rotating the top window into place and then initiating the measurement.
The two windows, when placed in the measurement position, create a 100 micron path length as specified in the EN 14078 method.
Clean-up is as simple as rotating the windows apart, and then cleaning the two windows with a simple wipe.
