Description
FTIR Fuel Analysis
In FTIR fuel analysis a spectrum of the analyzed fuel is recorded in the mid-infrared region using an Fourier transform spectrometer. Depending on the chosen method a single measurement is able to detect over 40 parameters within a few seconds. For gasoline measurements e.g. RON, MON, AKI, distillation properties, esters and aromatics concentrations are determined. When analyzing diesel aromatics, cetane improvers, biodiesel and many more can be quantified. Analyzing biodiesel ERASPEC distinguishes between FAME / FAEE and vegetable oil. It measures FAME in full compliance with ASTM D7806 and EN 14078. Typical parameters for jet fuel include FAME, aromatics, freezing and flash point, smoke point and distillation parameter, as well as viscosity.
ERASPEC can directly derive fuel component concentrations from the measured IR spectrum. That includes aromatics such as benzene (ASTM D6277), oxygenates such as MTBE or ethanol (ASTM D5845) and octane boosters such as MMT for the measurements of gasoline. Knowing the exact fuel composition, however, also allows to calculate more complex fuel parameters. ERASPEC uses chemometrical models, based on fuel libraries, to calculate parameters such as RON, MON or distillation and evaporation fractions from the spectrum for gasoline. It covers cetane number and index and many more for diesel fuel.
While the ERASPEC fuel analyzer comes already with factory installed databases that, depending on the chosen modules and requirements, it is easily expandable by the user. These databases provided by eralytics are tailor-made to the typical needs within a given country or region. Adding customer samples to the databases is as easy as running a measurement and entering the corresponding reference values afterwards. The added data is used right for the next measurement as the chemometrical models are calculated on the fly. Additionally it is possible to add new user defined parameters the same way to tailor future measurements.
The “Automatic Fuel Recognition” (AFR) Module allows an easy measurement of unknown samples with the ERASPEC fuel analyzer. It recognizes if gasoline, diesel or jet fuel is measured and automatically starts the correct analysis according to the registered fuel type.
