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Ethanol test..

pierre smith

Well Known Member
Mornin' all,
Yesterday afternoon, Brian and I needed some mogas and the station we normally buy from was closed. I remembered the test for ethanol someone had posted here earlier.....1 part water to 4 or 5 parts mogas. Shake it up and the water content will rise as it "steals" the ethanol from the water. The test passed but we still weren't sure. Have many of you guys have tried this? How quick should the amount of water increase if alcohol is present?

Thanks,
 
I've used this method several times. Never found alcohol in any of the gas I bought. There would be a 10-15% increase in the volume of water due to the addition of the ethanol / alcohol to the water volume.

Sounds like you did it right.
 
EAA's test method can be found at: http://www.aviationfuel.org/faqs/alcohol_testing.asp#TopOfPage

Ratio should be 9:1 gas to water, not 4 or 5 to 1. I question whether that small a proportion of gas to water of 4 to 1 will allow you to detect small amounts of ethanol, say 2%. Most places this may not be a problem, but if they add ethanol to your gas seasonally, which they used to do in our area (now it's year round), you might get 2 or 3% during the transition period.

They specify a 1000 ml cylinder; I use a 100 ml cylinder.
 
I've feeling that EAA 'recommends' to use 9 parts of mogas on 1 part of water... I guess that the difference/change would be bigger compared to your case if ethanol is present.

Try mix some (few percent of volume) ethanol to you mogas and study what happens when you add that water?
 
Ethanol test

A simple way to perform the test is to take any empty glass jar, preferably fairly tall and narrow, like a jam jar that you get your Smuckers in and put in about 1/2 inch of water. Set the jar on a flat surface and mark the level of the water with a Sharpie fine pen. Now add 3 or so inches of fuel (leave about 1/2 inch of space at top so it shakes well) on top of the water and seal with your jam jar lid. Shake it hard for about 30 seconds and then let it sit for maybe two hours. If you have any ethanol in the fuel you will see a discernible increase in the water, the clear liquid will be above the Sharpie mark that you first made. As far as I'm concerned the portions of water to fuel doesn't really matter unless you are trying to determine the percentage of alcohol in the fuel.
 
10 to 15 Seconds

Pierre, I have an EAA tester which is a test tube that is calibrated to tell you the exact percentage of ethanol that is in the gasoline. I have only found ethanol in one batch of gasoline that I bought. The total content was 5%. I put the required amount of water in the test tube, the required amount of gasoline, shook it up and the volume of the water increased almost instantly. Within several seconds it was clear that there was ethanol in the gasoline. Within 30 seconds it was showing 5% and I let the sample sit for about an hour and it did not change very much.
Based upon my one sample, the alcohol is absorbed by the water very quickly.

Chuck
 
Thanks...

....everybody. I spoke with the guy who owns the "alternate" gas station (BP), that is open 7 days a week. He's an old acquaintance and gauranteed me that there is no alcohol in his gas and more than likely I'd not find it in most 91 octane. More than likely in the regular gas mix.

Thanks again,
 
Hummmm...

I know that this would be a lot of work, but could you do this on a bigger scale to make good mogas out of ethanol gas?

Kent
 
I know that this would be a lot of work, but could you do this on a bigger scale to make good mogas out of ethanol gas?

Kent

Yes, but the water will pick up trace amounts of gasoline and will be stinky. Then, you have a waste-water problem to deal with. And the gasoline will have trace amounts of water in it(easy enough to remove with some old refrigerator coils). There would also be fire/explosion hazards to consider. Liquid-liquid extraction operations are done on an industrial scale. Costs money.
 
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