Near-Infrared Spectroscopy in Analysis of Crudes and Transportation Fuels

There is an ongoing need for improvement in the optimization of petroleum refining processes. To this end, the technological development of analytical instrumentation and data treatment have been explored using process analytical chemistry (PAC) tools, which allow real-time on-line or in-line analysis faster and with lower cost than the standard reference methods. The use of near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy combined with chemometric methods is an ideal fit for PAC tasks. This combination has provided good results in the analysis of crude oil and petroleum derivatives such as gasoline and diesel oil, for which many quality parameters can be adequately determined using process analyzers, providing information for process control by means of real-time optimization (RTO) systems. The final quality control of gasoline and diesel oil, as well as their mixtures with biofuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel, respectively, can also be adequately performed in the laboratory using NIR spectroscopy combined with chemometric methods. Keywords: near-infrared spectroscopy; chemometrics; process analytical chemistry; petroleum; crude oil; fuel; diesel; gasoline; ethanol; biodiesel