New certified rapeseed-based biodiesel reference material for effective biodiesel testing

The ‘White Paper on Internationally Compatible Biofuels Standards’, published by a task force of biofuels experts from Brazil, the European Union, and the United States in 2007, recommended the “development of internationally-accepted reference methods and certified reference materials ... that underpin assessment of product quality, and help facilitate trade.” To meet this need, the Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements has released ERM-EF001, the first rapeseed-based biodiesel certified reference material, which is certified for selected parameters specified by the European Committee for Standardization in 2012 in standard EN 14214, i.e., the mass fraction of the ester, linolenic acid methyl ester, monoglyceride, diglyceride, triglyceride, total glycerol, and water content, density, viscosity, oxidation stability, acid value, iodine value, and flash point. All parameters are considered as method-defined measurands and can only be obtained by following the procedures specified in EN 14214. T...