With the advent of the Zeitronix ECA I figured I would mention an affordable alternative to testing for the percentage of ethanol in our fuel. Aviation personnel use this device as do a lot of petroleum industry professionals to measure the amount of ethanol in gas.

While the tool was originally designed for only up to e30 measurements I have found that e85 can be measured and my most recent test showed my local pump to be delivering right around e85

Anyway I ordered this "beaker" and you place water in the tube to a measured line and then fill up with your Ethanol to the fuel marked line and place top on vial and shake. After 5 minutes or so the water and alcohol seperate and you will see a milky substance(gas and additives) at the top of the vial.

Pic. of device

Below is a link to a pic. of measuring vial with a special chemical to make it easier to see it is not really necessary but looks cool For this pic you can see the 5 and 10% content graduations and each 10% of content measures 1/4" from the lower water or zero line. My line appeared right around 2.3 inches so right around e85


LOL low bandwidth users beware click on pic. when you get to the link to see pics. in full glory. At top of page there are a few others

Link to picture

http://cid-85eeb86566e374e9.skydrive...MG%7C_0125.JPG

 

Theory of operation by some dude named "James W. Hebert"


Credit: James W. Hebert


"Test Theory

The fuel sample is mixed with a volume of water that is large enough to ensure that there will be too much water to go into solution with the gasoline. The test procedure assumes that in the presence of all this extra water any alcohol and water already in solution with the gasoline will leave. By driving all the water and alcohol out of the gasoline and into the other solution, the composition of the fuel sample is revealed. The change in volume can be assessed according to this relationship:

Let W be the volume of the water to be added
to the sample relative to the total volume
in the test tube. This is usually chosen to
be much more than the 0.5-percent maximum
that ethanol can hold in solution. In our
example we will use 25-percent volume for
water in the test tube. This will be the initial
volume of the lower phase in the test tube.

Let F be the volume of the fuel sample,
which is always the total volume minus the water;
in our case 75-percent of the total volume.
This will be the initial volume of the upper
phase in the test tube.

Let D be the increase in the volume of lower
phase in the test tube relative to the total
volume which occurs when the water and fuel
are fully mixed and allowed to separate
into two phases.

If we have a 100-ml cylinder, we can let

F = 75 ml
W = 25 ml

After mixing there will be an increase in volume
in the lower phase by an amount D (ml), which is
the amount of water and alcohol which came out
of the sample and went into solution with the water.
The original volume of the sample was F, and the
new volume of the sample is less, or F-D,
which is pure gasoline portion.

The volume change, D, was the water or alcohol
driven out of solution. The percentage of the
sample which was either water or alcohol is therefore

Percent = D/F X 100

For example, if the phase boundary moves up 5-ml,
then the percentage of the fuel that was water
and alcohol was

Percent = 5/75 X 100
= 6.7 percent


The above probably won't pass muster if carefully examined by a Ph.D in Chemical Engineering. When chemical reagents of a certain volume mix together the resulting solution does not always have a volume equal to the sum of the two reagents' volumes. Water and alcohol are a good example."


It should be remembered that a lot of oil companies and government agencies have ditched fancy equipment in favor of these simple testers

 

nice find / post

 

Nice post. Love it when there's always the DIY option. Now if you could integrate that same visual beaker into a random sample into your fuel system real time. For example implementing a visual gauge right on your gauge pod. Let me keep thinking.....it's late now.

 

Thanks should be getting another model in soon

 

I do see advantages to this although it is easy enough to measure content at fillup. As long as your fuel system is sealed and the fuel is used in a reasonable time the content will not change much if at all.

PS you can buy the Zeitronix option for $500 by the time you buy gauge and sensor

 

Good find!

Where can this be purchased?

Thanks

 

Do a search on web for "Ethanol Content Tester"

I'm working on labeling for up to 100% alcohol most testers only have markings for up to 30% and you measure and do a little math to calculate your content.

I'l lbe testing this week hopefully

 

Where do you mount this in the car?

 

My guess is for some it could be mounted in/on middle of seat prior to sitting

I got the other kit in the mail today and it came with a plastic container kinda like a burger joint squirt catsup bottle to allow you to pump fuel in container and then squeeze the fuel into the tester. I do not plan on testing at every fill up but once a month or so. This tester does me fine. The kit also came with a sticker with premeasured markings up to 100% content

PS my tester stays in glove box when not testing fuel.

 

Mount it in the center of the back seat with lights around it. Make it look like a flux capacitor!

 

Sounds like a good idea, may have to try it out. I have one question though, how are you getting 85% in Feb. when it should be class III E70?

 

California has e85 pretty much year round according to some chart. I also spoke with owner of station and they buy way ahead of time to lock in prices.

 

They now offer a sticker by request that you can put on the tester that will give you measurements up to E100

 

Ha ha ha some Dude told them they should make them and another company already had them by request. Earlier in the thread when I said another model coming in ... this second one has measure ments. It is easy enough as you measure distance say between 10 and 20 percent is 1/4 inch so you take sharpie and mark accoridngly. (this is example I do not remember the exact figures but you get the idea.

Thanks for the post in the thread though

Contrary to the naysayers this method is used by a lot of employees in the industry

If I'm not mistaken this method of measure is also mentioned on a governemnt website. Cheap and very accurate as the alcohol/ethanol seperates from the water and you can see the additives and the remaining gas. try some food coloring adda couple of drops in the water mix and it helps to see it even better. The website that offers the dye is really selling food coloring or very similar.
Don't ask me how I know