Determination of ethanol content in gasoline: theory and experiment

Adulterated gasoline may cause problems to the car engine, may present health hazards, and causes losses of tax revenues by the government. Recently, with the deregulation of the Brazilian oil market, there has been rising concerns regarding the quality of Brazilian gasoline. According to ANP (Brazilian regulatory authority), the gasoline is being adulterated by adding a higher concentration of ethanol, or using hydrated ethanol, or adding foreign solvents. This work presents a portable electronic method for the determination of ethanol content in Brazilian gasoline.