A straightforward
analytical methodology has been developed for
the identification and characterization of nonpolar high molecular
weight contaminants, such as lubricant oils and greases, in jet and
diesel fuels. Such contaminants typically contain a distribution of
compounds with carbon numbers in the range C25–C40, or 350–600 Da, which are sufficiently larger than
fuel constituents to be effectively detected via liquid chromatography.
The methodology is based on high performance liquid chromatography,
utilizing a xylenes–cyclohexane mobile phase gradient to separate
these contaminants from fuels by means of dual porous graphite stationary
phase columns and evaporative light scattering detection. The limits
of detection for n-pentacosane, n-triacontane, n-pentatriacontane, and n-tetracontane were determined to be approximately 0.1 ppm, with an
upper limit of 10% by volume. The newly developed methodology improves
upon a previously developed methodology by both enhancing the resolution
of high molecular weight contaminants from diesel fuels and eliminating
the need for a chlorinated solvent while still minimizing gradient
artifacts in the baseline. Uninformative variable elimination–partial
least squares modeling was used to construct a comprehensive modeling
framework trained with data collected from fuels with known contaminants,
to characterize detected contaminants in at least a semiquantitative
fashion. The overall methodology was successfully tested for use with
various grades of jet and diesel fuel samples.