High-Precision Biogenic Fraction Analyses of Liquid Fuels by ¹⁴C AMS at HEKAL

Abstract

The biocomponent ratio in liquid fuels as well as the usage of renewable resources for fuel consumption in the transport sector needs to be increased as a result of EU directive 2003/30/EC. Based on radiocarbon (14C) measurements, it should be relatively simple and fast to measure the weight percentage of the fossil and biological sources by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) as recommended in the ASTM D 6866-12 and EN 16640 standards. In this study, a relatively easy and fast sample preparation and measurement method based on AMS measurements was developed at the Hertelendi Laboratory of Environmental Studies (HEKAL) using reference samples from the Hungarian MOL Nyrt. oil company. Considering the recent EU regulation for mixing rates of liquid fuels in the transport sector (0.7–2% biofuel content) and the projected higher rates (2–10% biofuel content), the method is applicable to determine fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) and/or hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) derived proportions of fuel blends with a 1σ uncertainty better than±0.3% m/m.

Radiocarbon dating

“…Routine analyses are now performed on polymers 311 , bio-fuels 312,313 , synthetic gases 314 as well as flue gases from industrial sources 315,316 . Radiocarbon dating using both beta-counting 317 and AMS 314 techniques is now included in different international protocols such as those of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 318 and the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) 319 .…”

Optimization of the direct LSC method for determination of biogenic component in liquids by applying 14C

“…Radiocarbon methods based on various concentration of radiocarbon ( 14 C) in biogenic and fossil fuels has been proved to be one of the most accurate and reliable methods of biogenic fraction determination and the only method that directly quantifies the carbon of recent biological origin in a material [5][6][7]. The 14 C method can be successfully applied for determination of biogenic component in any type of samples and by different measurement techniques, such as accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS), liquid scintillation counting with benzene synthesis (LSC-B), liquid scintillation counting with absorption of CO 2 (LSC-A) [3,5,[7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. However, these classical radiocarbon techniques, used for dating purposes mainly, can be expensive and time consuming although applicable to all kinds of material (solid, liquid, gaseous) [3,5,7].…”

Biogenic Fraction Determination in Fuel Blends by Laser‐Based 14CO2 Detection

“…Nowadays, only two well‐established techniques, accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) and liquid scintillation counting (LSC), can also rely on the direct assessment of the 14 C content to measure the biogenic fraction in any kind of fuel. In particular, AMS can achieve uncertainty values (here and hereafter reported as one standard deviation) in measuring the biogenic content of different fuel blends ranging between 0.3% and 1% for liquids, [ 9–12 ] and 0.7–4.5% for gases. [ 13 ] LSC can achieve uncertainty values of 0.2–4% in measuring the biogenic content of liquid fuels [ 14,15 ] and cannot be used for gas phase samples.…”