Abstract
In this work we demonstrate efficient quality control of a variety of gasoline and ethanol (gasohol) blends using a multimode interference (MMI) fiber sensor. The operational principle relies on the fact that the addition of ethanol to the gasohol blend reduces the refractive index (RI) of the gasoline. Since MMI sensors are capable of detecting small RI changes, the ethanol content of the gasohol blend is easily determined by tracking the MMI peak wavelength response. Gasohol blends with ethanol contents ranging from 0% to 50% has been clearly identified using this device, which provides a linear response with a maximum sensitivity of 0.270 nm/% EtOH. The sensor can also distinguish when water incorporated in the blend has exceeded the maximum volume tolerated by the gasohol blend, which is responsible for phase separation of the ethanol and gasoline and could cause serious engine failures. Since the MMI sensor is straightforward to fabricate and does not require any special coating it is a cost effective solution for real time and in-situ monitoring of the quality of gasohol blends.
Highlights
In the last two decades there has been a growing interest in the development of renewable fuels that might replace or reduce the use of gasoline
Since multimode interference (MMI) sensors are capable of detecting small refractive index (RI) changes, accurate control of gasohol blends is realized in a simple way
We have a separation of 15.2 nm between the transmitted peak wavelengths which is smaller than the expected values obtained from Figure 1b. Such a difference is related to the fact that the RI of ethanol and gasoline used in the simulations are not necessarily the same for anhydrous ethanol (AE) and G87 gasoline
Summary
In the last two decades there has been a growing interest in the development of renewable fuels that might replace or reduce the use of gasoline. Among the different approaches to develop renewable fuels, ethanol has attracted significant interest because it can be used either as a replacement or an additive for gasoline. The main issue here is that if we have a higher fraction of water than what can be contained by the gasohol mixture, phase separation of the gasohol mixture will occur. Other reports take advantage of the ability of long period gratings (LPG) to measure the refractive index (RI) of liquids as a way to detect mixtures of ethanol and gasoline [13,14]. Since MMI sensors are capable of detecting small RI changes, accurate control of gasohol blends is realized in a simple way. The sensor is capable of detecting when water incorporated in the blend has exceeded the maximum volume tolerated by the gasohol blend, which is responsible for phase separation of the ethanol and gasoline. We should highlight that since the sensor does not require any particular coating and its fabrication is rather simple and inexpensive
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