A Hands-On Approach for Identification of Hydrocarbon Fractions and Their Measurement in Different Fuel Blends Using FTIR Spectroscopy

A laboratory experiment is designed for undergraduate and graduate students majoring in chemistry, chemical engineering, petrochemistry, and related fields to analyze hydrocarbon fractions using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. In this experiment, students are first directed to evaluate commercially available fractions of hydrocarbons used as fuels in everyday life such as gasoline, kerosene, and diesel by measuring and interpreting their IR spectra. During this work, students understand the fundamentals of FTIR spectroscopy, instrumentation, interpretation of spectra and become acquainted with commercial liquid fossil fuels burned in cars, houses, and industries. Then, they are trained on how to create a library of the obtained spectra to be used as the data set in subsequent studies. Finally, students are engaged in dealing with unknown samples of hydrocarbon blends and quantifying the amounts of each component. During this course, students are equipped with the knowledge of quality control and material identification which are very important for working in industry, customs, and product monitoring organizations.