Phase Separation in Gasoline

Yup, Lynch is right again! I have worked in the Fuels industry for 12 years and closely watched the introduction of ethanol blends to my military fuel systems. If you have a 10% blend of ethanol it can 'soak' up about 10% it's total volume of water but any more and it will drop out entirely.

It is the hygroscopic nature of alcohols that causes the problem. Before the introduction of blended fuels you would add some type of "Dry gas" product if you suspected water was in your gas. This was ethanol and it completely mixed with your water to produce a flammable liquid. When ethanol is mixed with water, the water doesn't go away, it dilutes into the gasoline and is turned into vapor when it goes through the carburetor or fuel injectors and proceeds through the engine. Our engines are not designed for this and it results in slightly lowered performance until the fuel is gone or diluted enough.

Water in fuels during the refining , storing and transporting process is more common than you know. When we would receive a batch of fuel from the refinery, we test it for water. If the water separates, we drain it away completely and recover the fuel that drains out with it. If the fuel is cloudy with entrained water, we run it through filters designed to remove it. Water can also be picked up in bulk storage through open roof floating pan storage tanks or in pipelines that collect water in low points from previous batches. It is for this reason, that the ethanol is not introduced to gasoline until it is put into the truck going to your service station. We can drain and filter out water only until it is blended with ethanol. This is why I always suggest using gas stations that are well maintained and do not allow water to get into their systems.

If you read the entire article it explains many of the problems we face with ethanol blended gasolines. I know this sounds scary and the drop in miles per gallon got alot of media attention, but it isn't all bad. In my humble opinion, regardless of the global warming debate I would still pay more for less efficient gasoline blends as long as it puts crops that pay in farmers fields. I know the media claims this will cause skyrocketing produce prices, but what would you rather do? Spend more money in your own country paying people who will also spend that money here or export that money to a foreign country that is probably in a part of the world that has extremists who hate the "Western" cultures?

Now I tried to write that carefully, because there are many people in the world who hate the Muslim nations. I do not. In my military and civilian career, I lived in Muslim nations and made many friends there. I believe they are a peaceful people and it is the power hungry extremists who make them look bad, no worse than the misled Christian crusaders.