Thermal lens spectroscopy for the differentiation of biodiesel-diesel blends

Abstract

Thermal lens (TL) spectroscopy was applied to biofuels to test its potential to distinguish diesel from biodiesel in blended fuels. Both the heat and mass diffusion effects observed using a TL procedure provide significant information about biodiesel concentrations in blended fuels. The results indicate that the mass diffusivity decreases 32% between diesel and the blend with 10% biodiesel added to the diesel. This simple TL procedure has the potential to be used for in loco analyses to certify the mixture and quality of biodiesel-diesel blends.

Effects of paraffin chain size on the oil outflow investigated by a combination of thermal lens and laser-induced fluorescence spectrometries

“…More recent studies have proposed the use of TLS to evaluate fuels such as oil-biodiesel preparations [22], attesting the sensitivity of the technique to detect biodiesel levels in a certain amount of biodiesel [23], and enabling, for instance, the detection of nonconformities and biodiesel alterations. Silva et al [21] described an attempt to establish a phenomenological correlation between the rheological and physicochemical properties of several biodiesel types.…”