Comparison of Nitro-Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Levels in Conventional Diesel and Alternative Diesel Fuels

Comparisons of the nitro-PAH (NPAH) content, as measured by electron monochromator (EM)-MS, in the emissions produced from a modern production diesel engine running on conventional and alternative diesel fuels (biodiesel) are presented. Peaks of 2-nitroanthracene, 9-nitroanthracene, and 1-nitropyrene are identified based on retention times. The use of an EM as the ionization source for the MS allowed for minimal sample cleanup to obtain results with little interference. Further work is being conducted on a gas to liquids synthetic diesel fuel made by the Fischer-Tropsch (FT) process and blends with various levels of FT fuel combined with more conventional refinery diesel fuel. Qualitative and quantitative comparisons will be made of all samples to provide insight on the effect of alternative fuels on production of NPAH in diesel emissions. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the ACS Fuel Chemistry Meeting (San Diego, CA Spring 2005).