Capillary Sensor with UV-VIS Reading of Effects of Diesel and Biodiesel Fuel Degradation in Storage

• Main Authors: Michal BORECKI, Michael L. KORWIN-PAWLOWSKI
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: IFSA Publishing, S.L. 2016-10-01
• Series: Sensors & Transducers
• Subjects: Diesel fuel; Fuel quality; Fuel storage; Fuel stability; Capillary sensor; Fluorescence sensor.
• Online Access: http://www.sensorsportal.com/HTML/DIGEST/october_2016/Vol_205/P_2861.pdf

The diesel fuel stability is related with the fuel composition that evolved to the modern fuels from the historical ones. The stability of modern diesel fuel is mainly due to the reduction of the oxidation processes, the result of the presence of unsaturated components and components with oxygen as organic components and cetane index improvers. These fuel components may form insoluble particles and gum that can contribute to rapid fuel injection system wear and filter plugging. Therefore, the simple characteristic of serious degradation of diesel fuel is the appearance of resins and sediments. The present paper concentrates on the development of simple measurement procedure that can find application in construction of low cost the capillary sensor which enables the examination of the stability of modern diesel fuel including classification of not degraded fuel, fuel on first stage of degradation and serious degraded fuel. As a basic of development the degradation of most widely used cetane improver (2-ethyl hexyl nitrate) and presence of resin are examined in one arrangement. Results of a sensor working on the principle of scattered signal and fluorescence excited in a disposable capillary cell with two, UV and VIS, high power light emitted diodes are presented.