Determination of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Biodiesel Exhaust from Jatropha curcas and Chlorella variabilis by Gas Chromatography with Flame Ionization Detection

Biodiesel serves as a promising alternative to the conventional petroleum fuels and is considered to be a renewable source of energy which can be used in compression-ignition engines with minimum or no modifications. Two biodiesels derived from Jatropha curcas seeds and marine microalga Chlorella variabilis were substituted for petrodiesel and 16 priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (United States Environmental Protection Agency) were targeted for quantification through gas chromatography equipped with a flame ionization detector. For comparison, petrodiesel was selected as a control, and the analyte concentrations were calculated through calibration curves with correlation coefficient ranging from 0.9909 to 0.9999. The analytical figures of merit were determined for each analyte. The relative standard deviations for intra-day repeatability and inter-day reproducibility were in the range of 4.47–8.75%. The results indicated a significant decrease of around 77 and 68% in the overall polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon concentrations in the particulate matter originating from J. curcas and microalga C. variabilis biodiesel, respectively. This study is perceived as an important step toward describing the green emission behavior of these biodiesels and their merits compared to the conventional petroleum-based fuels.