• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.717-726
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• 2017

The current allowable cross-contamination level of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) in aviation turbine fuel (AVTUR) is 50 mg/kg, due to that the presence of FAME in AVTUR can significantly impact the fuel supply system and jet engine. It has been difficult to analyze the level of FAME in AVTUR, since it is consisted of a lot of hydrocarbons. In this study, thus, a new method using multi-dimensional GC-MS (MDGC-MS) was proposed in order to determine the FAME level in AVTUR effectively. Applying to MDGC-MS with Deans switching system enabled us to detect and quantify the FAME with low carbon numbers such as those derived from coconut oil and palm kernel oil. The matrix effect of MDGC-MS method, which could shift the FAME peaks to slightly longer retention times, was reduced by 20 times compared with that of 1-dimensional GC-MS reference method. This developed method could be suitable for qualitative and quantitative analyses to determine the contamination level of trace FAME in AVTUR.