DEVELOPMENT OF NEW ANALYTICAL METHODS FOR EVALUATION OF AVIATION BIOKEROSENE QUALITY

Abstract

Aviation biokerosene (ABK) that is shown as an alternative in reducing emissions of polluting gases generated by aviation industry. The 2G biofuels are those produced from sustainable raw materials that are not used as feed sources, such as, biomass and vegetable oils. The ABK can be classified into three types: Fischer Tropsch (FT), Hydrotreated Esters and Fatty Acids (HEFA) and Synthesized Iso-Paraffins (SIP) according to how these biofuels are obtained and constituted. In general, all ABK types are made up of isoparaffins, n-paraffins, cycloparaffins, however in their composition are found several contaminants, such as hexahydrofarnesol and mercaptan sulfur, as well as some compounds that are added to improve the performance of these biofuels (antioxidants). For this reason, regulatory agencies have established technical specifications for various constituent compounds of these biokerosenes in order to assess the quality of these biofuels. However, the recommended methods by regulatory agencies in general were developed from adaptations of other analysis methods of similar compounds in different matrices, most of which resulted in losses in the detectability and selectivity levels. Because of this, the development of new analytical methods for determination of these compounds in ABK is extremely necessary. Therefore, this project has the objective of developing new methods for the determination of hexahydrofarnesol, mercapto sulfur and antioxidants in BQA using electrochemical sensors composed of electrodes modified with graphene, metallic nanoparticles and molecularly imprinted polymers, as well as separation techniques using electrochemical detectors coupled with the high performance liquid chromatography technique. (AU)