Determination of the Biodiesel Content in Petrodiesel/Biodiesel Blends: A Method Based on Uv-Visible Spectroscopy and Chemometrics Tools

Abstract

In this work, we developed an analytical method based on UV-visible spectroscopy to determine the concentration of biodiesel from African palm in blends of petrodiesel. Seventy-five samples with biodiesel concentrations between 0-100 wt% were prepared. The spectral fingerprints that were obtained from the analysis of the samples by UV-visible spec troscopy were used to build predictive model using PLS regression. The predictive ability of the models was evaluated through statistical parameters: the standard error of calibration (SEC), the standard error of validation (SEV), the correlation coefficient of calibration (r Cal) and validation (r Val), the ratio (SEC/SEV), the coefficient of determination R 2 , the paired data Student ’ s t-test , cross-validation and external validation. The results indicate that the PLS model predicts the concentration of biodiesel from African palm with high precision in mixtures with petrodiesel. The method devel oped in this study can be applied to determine the concentration of biodiesel African palm in mixtures of petrodiesel in a more rapid and economical way. Moreover, this method has less analytical errors and is more environmentally friendly than the conventional methods.