The use of ethanol as a fuel in the United States has significantly increased over the past decade. Today, greater than 80% of all retail gas stations in the US blend gasoline with up to 10% ethanol (E10).
One of the main concerns in the supply and storage of ethanol is the potential for what is called “phase separation” in gasoline that contains ethanol. Phase separation occurs when enough water contaminates the gasoline. This causes the ethanol to attach itself to the water molecules, leaving two distinct layers in the storage tank: a gasoline-only layer at the top and an ethanol/water “cocktail” along the bottom.
There are 3 negative effects of phase separation:
damage to your retail dispensing infrastructure. The fluid resulting from Phase separation is highly corrosive and can damage your storage tank, submersible pumps, piping and fuel dispensers
damage to customer vehicles and your gas station brand. Phase separation in most vehicles will cause engines to stall almost immediately, leaving disabled vehicles at the gas station. This will cause a bad image problem and drop in customer loyalty which is hard to recover from
out of spec or unsaleable fuel. The octane of pure ethanol is approximately 113, so to obtain 87-octane E10 gasoline, the pure gasoline used in this blend is below 87 octane. Thus after phase separation, the pure gasoline left is depleted from the ethanol and is thus of lower octane.
Automatic Tank gauge/ Monitor with water detection
Most modern underground storage tanks have this as integral part of its monitoring. It consist of a 2-way probe: it has 1 floating sensor reporting the lever of fuel and one more reporting the level of water at the bottom. This probe is wired to your console inside your gas station's back office. The following picture shows a typical UST equipped with this system.
The main drawback of this method is that due to the difference in density between water and the fluid resulting from phase separation, the float at the bottom of the probe will indicate the level of water but not necessarily the level of the phase separation fluid which sits on top. This happens because the lower float is calibrated to respond to water's density so it floats in water, but the density of the phase separation fluid is lower than water's and variable. In effect, you can see accumulation of water in the tank but you are blind to phase separation fluid.
One of the main concerns in the supply and storage of ethanol is the potential for what is called “phase separation” in gasoline that contains ethanol. Phase separation occurs when enough water contaminates the gasoline. This causes the ethanol to attach itself to the water molecules, leaving two distinct layers in the storage tank: a gasoline-only layer at the top and an ethanol/water “cocktail” along the bottom.
There are 3 negative effects of phase separation:
damage to your retail dispensing infrastructure. The fluid resulting from Phase separation is highly corrosive and can damage your storage tank, submersible pumps, piping and fuel dispensers
damage to customer vehicles and your gas station brand. Phase separation in most vehicles will cause engines to stall almost immediately, leaving disabled vehicles at the gas station. This will cause a bad image problem and drop in customer loyalty which is hard to recover from
out of spec or unsaleable fuel. The octane of pure ethanol is approximately 113, so to obtain 87-octane E10 gasoline, the pure gasoline used in this blend is below 87 octane. Thus after phase separation, the pure gasoline left is depleted from the ethanol and is thus of lower octane.
Automatic Tank gauge/ Monitor with water detection
Most modern underground storage tanks have this as integral part of its monitoring. It consist of a 2-way probe: it has 1 floating sensor reporting the lever of fuel and one more reporting the level of water at the bottom. This probe is wired to your console inside your gas station's back office. The following picture shows a typical UST equipped with this system.
The main drawback of this method is that due to the difference in density between water and the fluid resulting from phase separation, the float at the bottom of the probe will indicate the level of water but not necessarily the level of the phase separation fluid which sits on top. This happens because the lower float is calibrated to respond to water's density so it floats in water, but the density of the phase separation fluid is lower than water's and variable. In effect, you can see accumulation of water in the tank but you are blind to phase separation fluid.
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