“INMETRO and NIST “ will establish a collaborative program on Metrology and Standards for Biofuels. As a first step, a Workshop will be held in Rio de Janeiro in Sept in conjunction with the IMEKO Conference, to share experiences and identify measurement and standards issues of mutual interest. Other interested government and private sector organizations will be invited to participate.” USA-Brazil cooperation on Biofuel standards

Areas of focus: Anhydrous Ethanol Petroleum-Ethanol Blends Biodiesel ??? Measurement and Standards for Biofuels: Enabling a Transition from Petroleum as a Vehicular Energy Source: Next Steps

Types of Activities/Issues: Review of Specifications for Biofuels as a Commodity –Small group to be convened to address topic and report back next meeting; relevance of various measurands/analytes/properties very important part of discussion. Materials Research, Data and Testing Technology (NIST/INMETRO) –Small group of experts to Identify relevant materials issues and present at next meeting as potential cooperative research target Reference Methods and CRMs (NIST/INMETRO) –Development and critical evaluation of higher order methods [NMIs] and CRMs to underpin measurements against specifications –critical evaluation of field methods to be used to assess conformance with specifications Thermophysical Property Data (NIST/INMETRO)

Specifications for Anhydrous Ethanol

More Specification (1)

More Specification (2)

Reference Methods for Anhydrous Ethanol

Simple Measurements Alcoholic Strength - Glass Densimeter or Electronic Digital Densimeter Acidity - Titration pH – potentiometer/specific electrode for hydrated and anhydrous ethanol Conductivity – conductivimeter/cell constant equal to 0.1cm -1 Aspect – Visual Color - Visual

Complex Measurements Metals –Copper - Atomic Absorption / Graphite Furnace Anions –Sulfate and Chloride Titration - Dimethylsulfonazo Titration - Specific electrode Ion Chromatography

Complex Measurements Gas Chromatography –Ethanol content –Methanol –C3-C4 –Higher alcohols Sulfur –Sulfate –Sulfur

Complex Measurements Nitrogen (?) Phosphorus (?) Water – Karl Fischer Solvent-washed Gum (?) Non-volatil Material