What is BS EN 14103 about?
BS EN 14103 describes a procedure for the determination of the ester content in fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) intended for incorporation into diesel oil. It also allows determining the linolenic acid methyl ester content.
BS EN 14103 allows verifying that the ester content of FAME is greater than 90 % (m/m) and that the linolenic acid methyl ester content is between 1 % (m/m) and 15 % (m/m).
The precision was established using FAMEs with an ester content of 95 % (m/m) and 100 % (m/m) only, thus covering the range of the limit value. The method is also suitable outside of this range. However, precision for lower concentrations is subject to further work.
This method is suitable for FAME which contains methyl esters between C6 and C24.
NOTE 1: For the purposes of this document, the term “% (m/m)” is used to represent the mass fractions.
NOTE 2: The calculation method of the pattern of fatty acid methyl esters is given in Annex C.
Who is BS EN 14103 for?
BS EN 14103 on FAME is relevant to:
- Biodiesel industry
- Food technologists
- Biochemical engineers
- Automotive industry
Why should you use BS EN 14103?
FAME is a type of biofuel produced from vegetable oils, animal fats or waste cooking oils by a process called transesterification.
EN 14103 specifies the FAME and linolenic acid methyl ester content which is used to profile the vegetable or animal oil feedstock used in biodiesel production.
BS EN 14103 helps in determining the mass percentage of total methyl esters of fatty acids and the mass percentage of linolenic acid methyl ester present in the sample, by gas chromatography according to a procedure using internal calibration (nonadecanoic acid methyl ester).
With BS EN 14103, you can ensure that FAME is free from organic impurities. As a result, you will be able to accurately quantify and qualify the contents of fatty acid contents as per the specific need of the application.
What is changed since the last update?
BS EN 14103:2020 supersedes EN 14103:2011. BS EN 14103:2020 includes some technical changes with respect to EN 14103:2011. These include:
- Note on natural nonadecanoic acid methyl ester added in the scope. New procedure to check nonadecanoic acid methyl ester purity, with new GC conditions, and reduction of the minimum GC purity (99,5 to 99,0 % (m/m)
- Calculation of results revised by incorporation of theoretical flame ionization detector correction factor (TCF) this gives a better accuracy of the calculated contents in case of presence of methyl esters with short chains
- New inter-laboratories study (ILS) conducted, and precision adopted. New sample chromatograms recorded and added
- Modification of the way of integration in 8.4 by taking all the peaks into consideration whereas in the previous edition all the peaks identified as fatty acid methyl esters were taken into consideration
- calculation of the pattern of fatty acid methyl esters incorporated as informative Annex C. Increase of the FAME sample test portion in 8.3 to 250 mg whereas in the previous edition the sample test portion was 100 mg