Effect of ethyl acetate addition on phase stability, octane number and volatility criteria of ethanol-gasoline blends

• Main Authors: Manal Amine, Ezis N. Awad, V. Ibrahim, Y. Barakat
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2018-12-01
• Series: Egyptian Journal of Petroleum
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1110062117302003

Blending ethanol in gasoline causes problems related to volatility and phase stability of the fuel blends. Ethanol is completely miscible with water so it has high affinity to water that may be present in storage tanks or that formed due to humidity. Drop in ambient temperature influences the stability of ethanol-gasoline blends and causes phase separation to the blend. This phase separation cause disadvantages like: poor quality fuel, loss in cost, and damage to storage tanks and engine parts due to corrosion. In this work, Ethanol-blended gasolines E5, E10, E15, E20 and ethanol-free gasoline (E0) were formulated to study the effects of ethyl acetate addition on these fuels. The obtained results revealed that the addition of ethyl acetate to ethanol-gasoline blends has many advantages such as enhancing the stability of the fuel blends and improving octane number with no adverse impacts on the volatility criteria of the investigated fuel blends. Keywords: Ethanol-gasoline blends, Ethyl acetate, Water tolerance, Phase separation, Vapor lock index