Radiocarbon activity
of fuels is a direct analog to the biogenic
fraction of carbon in the fuel. The amount of radiocarbon in a fuel
sample may be determined by liquid scintillation direct analysis if
the sample is relatively transparent to ultraviolet light. However,
many biofuels are colorful which adversely affects the counting efficiency
of this technique and therefore the precision which the biofuel blend
level may be determined. In such cases, decolorization may be an approach
to improve measurement precision. Here, we present the effectiveness
of several decolorization techniques for different fuel types. For
some fuels, decolorization impacted the radiocarbon content of the
sample; therefore, caution is necessary to ensure reliable assessment
of biofuel blend levels.