Gasoline, Kerosene, and Diesel Fingerprinting via Polar Markers

Abstract

Venturi easy ambient sonic-spray ionization mass spectrometry working in the liquid mode (VL-EASI-MS) is shown to provide rapid and reliable characterization of crude oil distillates. With no extraction or pretreatments, samples of gasoline, kerosene, diesel, and admixtures of gasoline/diesel and gasoline/kerosene were directly analyzed by VL-EASI(+)-MS. Homologous series of natural N-heteroaromatics were detected in their protonated forms providing typical profiles of polar markers. For gasoline, VL-EASI(+)-MS detects a homologous series of mainly C1–C5 alkyl pyridines. For kerosene, a typical series of alkylated tetrahydroquinolines is detected. For diesel, the V-EASI(+)-MS profile is much richer because of the detection of several classes of many N-heteroaromatics. VL-EASI(+)-MS is also shown to provide typical spectra for petrochemical gasolines detecting specific antioxidants. Admixtures of gasoline/kerosene and gasoline/diesel are also clearly characterized with limits of detection of 10 and 1% (v/v), respectively. Fourier transform-ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS) has been used to confirm assignments of the polar markers detected by VL-EASI(+)-MS.

Applications of Mass Spectrometric Techniques to the Analysis of Fuels and Lubricants

“…While most components in these fuels are non-polar, there is a wide range of components that have heteroatoms and would be considered to be more polar than the hydrocarbons. It is often the polar compounds that lend themselves to analysis by mass spectrometry due to their ability to be ionized by soft ionization techniques [29]. Nitrogen containing polar compounds are typically observed in positive ion mode using electrospray ionization.…”

Investigating the Trace Polar Species Present in Diesel Using High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry and Selective Ionization Techniques

“…Selective ionization combined with ultra-high resolution mass spectrometry is not often used for the analysis of middle distillate fractions such as diesel and only a limited number of examples can be found in literature [17][18][19] . This is mainly due to the fact that these fuels are highly suitable for gas chromatographic analysis considering its boiling point range (180 -320 °C).…”

Imaginary optical constants in near-infrared (NIR) spectral range for the separation and discrimination of adulterated diesel oil binary mixtures

“…In the case that markers are used, such as polar markers or impurities, for the identification of adulterated diesel oils, as suggested in [24], these markers contribute to the permittivity of diesel oil and kerosene and thus to the excess permittivity. Hence, the excess permittivity is a useful and relatively accessible measure for screening adulterated diesel oil containing fingerprints in the presence of polar markers.…”