Ethanol & Gasoline Blending 3

[MaNaTMoS]

Hello,

does anybody has experience with blending ethanol in gasoline up to 10% or more? I would like to know something about way of blending, keeping system clean and dry, additives used, allowed percent of water in ethanol, problems at low temperatures, ...

Thanks in advance.

 

[TD2K]

Not with that much ethanol, I worked on one bulk terminal job where we were adding just under 6% by volume of ethanol to gasoline before delivery to the gas stations.

The ethanol was denatured with 10% gasoline I believe, don't know what water spec they had as I wasn't involved in that end. The ethanol was stored in the terminal in its own tank with an internal floating roof. Gasoline being loaded into trucks was filtered and then metered using a turbine meter. The ethanol was also filtered and then metered with another turbine meter and blended with the gasoline to produce the final blend being loaded. There were specifications after the start of loading as to how long before the blend had to be on-target for the ethanol concentration and overall tolerances.

The only additive added was the detergent package depending who was getting the gasoline but this was an existing system that we weren't modifying. This was added essentially at the same spot we added the ethanol (just upstream of the loading arms).

Sorry, not sure what you are all looking for or if I can help you out.

 

[25362]

Could this site be of help ?

www.hawaii.gov/dbedt/ert/ewg/reynolds04technical.ppt​

I hope it will. It takes some time to rise, but then it has a series of pages that may interest you.

 

[phex]

limiting factor for blending ethanol into fuels is the maximum allowed content of elemental oxygen (EU codes state 2.7 wt% as max). other than that it's RVP one needs to keep in mind and the fact that ethanol actually is hygroscopic and as such may cause unwanted/nonpermited amounts of water in your gasoline, especially if you store it over longer periods of time.

hth,
chris

 

[MaNaTMoS]

Thanks to everyone, information is very useful.

Since some unusual problems may occur (due to presence of ethanol with water) in gasoline, are there any special additives required? What behaviour could be expected at low temperatures? Is there a "critical amount of water", defined by any standard(s)?

 

[25362]

Visit

http://www.chevron.com/prodserv/fuels/bulletin/motorgas/4_oxygenated-gasoline/pg2.asp

 

[25362]

Please note that gasoline itself may dissolve about 200 ppm water. Free water can be determined by ASTM D 2709-96(2001) by centrifuging.

As for oxygenated gasolines, ASTM D 4814 Annex A3 presents a Test Method for Water Tolerance. It requires cooling the fuel under specified conditions to its expected use temperature. Haze formation is not grounds for rejection. Actual separation into two distinct phases is the criterion for failure.

Methanol-, and sometimes ethanol-, gasoline blends are helped by the addition of a higher alcohol such as TBA to prevent phase separation.

 

[seeksense]

you can find a fairly thorough treatment of blending ethanol in gasoline here

http://www.ec.gc.ca/transport/publications/ethgas/ethgas4.htm