In
the present study, hierarchical cluster analysis was used to
select 150 S500 diesel fuel samples from an initial set of 1320 samples
assayed through official standards according to ANP Brazilian Regulation
No. 50/2013. Four physicochemical properties were analyzed, namely,
relative density, distillation temperatures (T10%, T50%, and T85%),
flash point, and cetane number. Selected samples were also analyzed
by gas chromatography with flame ionization detection (GC-FID), a
very common technique used for fuel quality control due to its convenience,
accuracy, simplicity, and possible association of the chromatographic
profiles with multivariate analyses. PLS regression models were obtained
aiming at predicting the four physicochemical properties of the diesel
fuel samples. From a maximum chromatographic analysis time of 108
min, regression models with unbiased predictions and good prediction
capability for all properties were obtained, with average relative
errors lower than 6%.