INTERCOMPARISON EXERCISE ON FUEL SAMPLES FOR DETERMINATION OF BIOCONTENT RATIO BY ¹⁴C ACCELERATOR MASS SPECTROMETRY

Abstract

The method of determining the biobased carbon content in liquid fuel samples is standardized, but different laboratories use different protocols during sample preparation and perform the measurements using different machines. The accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) laboratories use different combustion, preparation, and graphitization methods for the graphite production for the spectrometric measurements. As a result, the intercomparison between the laboratories is inevitable to prove precision and accuracy and to demonstrate that the results are comparable. In this study, we present the results of an intercomparison campaign involving three 14C accelerator mass spectrometry laboratories. Five samples were used in the measurement campaign, including two biocomponents (fatty acid methyl ester, hydrotreated vegetable oil), one fossil component (fossil diesel), and two blends (mixtures of fossil and biocomponent with 90–10% mixing ratio) in the laboratories of CEDAD (Italy), ETH (Switzerland), and INTERACT (Hungary). The results presented by the laboratories are comparable, and all three laboratories could determine the biobased carbon content of the samples within 1% relative uncertainty, which is acceptable in the scientific, economic, and industrial fields for biocomponent determination.

Atomic spectrometry update: review of advances in the analysis of metals, chemicals and materials

“…− was the most promising, with a RuF 5 − suppression factor of 10 5 with a 2.33 eV laser and a further suppression factor of 100 for Ru in the ion source. A remaining challenge was suppression of stable 97 Mo that would enable the use of a 97 Tc isotopic spike. 4.6.4 Nuclear forensics.…”

“…The next paper in this section, by Varga et al, was an intercomparison exercise on fuel samples for the determination of biocontent ratio using 14 C accelerator mass spectrometry. 97 Renewable components in the fuel industry, such as biofuels, are generally made by biological processing of recent organic materials. Based on classical analytical techniques, such as chromatography methods, it is difficult to distinguish the fossil (petroleum based) and biogenic (recent) component of the mixed fuel samples because the physical and chemical properties of these materials are quite similar.…”