Molecular Properties of Fatty Acid Mixtures Estimated by Online Time-Domain NMR

An approach based on time-domain nuclear magnetic resonance (TD-NMR) enables the estimation of the molecular properties of fatty acid mixtures—kinematic viscosity (µ), heating value (δ), cetane number (CN), and carbon chain length (CL). In this approach, the 1H NMR spin–spin relaxation rates R2 or times T2 were used to determine these molecular properties. Online monitoring of the µ, δ, CN, and CL of fatty acid mixtures was performed using an online TD-NMR system that had been modified for flowing samples. The presented results show the potential of TD-NMR for online quality control during the production of liquid fuels.