Properties of gasoline-ethanol-methanol ternary fuel blend compared with ethanol-gasoline and methanol-gasoline fuel blends

Abstract

Two binary sets of gasoline-methanol (GM) and gasoline-ethanol (GE) blends along with two other ternary sets of gasoline-methanol-ethanol (GME) blends were formulated comprising single and dual alcohol. ASTM-D86 distillation, vapor pressure, and octane number were measured. Also, distillation curves were constructed for each blend and the influence of azeotrope formation was discussed. The obtained results reveal that distillation curves of gasoline blends, comprising from 5 to 15 vol% methanol, display a more significant decrease in distillation temperature than gasoline-ethanol blends. Also, more decrease in distillation temperature is observed by increasing the rate of blended alcohol. At equal rates of blended alcohol, the distillation curve of ternary fuel (GE5M5) is positioned in between distillation curves of binary fuel blends GM10 and GE10. More acceptable vapor pressure is achieved in ternary GEM fuels containing 7.5–15.0 vol% of dual alcohol, the same rate in GM blends increases vapor-lock tendency. At equal alcohol content, GEM blends give a higher octane number than GE one.