International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)

Volume 100– No.13, August 2014

Determining the Adulteration of Diesel by an Optical

Method
Anwar Sadat
Electronics Engineering Department
Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, UP., India

ABSTRACT In the optical fiber, the light is guided by the core, but a small
Diesel is one of the fuels used in automobiles. But diesel is percentage of the field travels in the cladding. The cladding is
often adulterated with Kerosene which harms the engine and removed, the evanescent wave interacts with the measurand
reduces the life of automobiles. An electronic technique has providing the basis for sensing. For the fluids obeying the
been developed to determine the adulteration in diesel by Lambert-Beer law of absorption, the evanescent absorbance
kerosene, in which the light is passed in an optical fiber, the depends linearly on both exposed fiber length and the fluid
cladding of which is removed over a small area, where the concentration [10-11]. This paper deals with an electronic
evanescent wave interacts with the measurand. The light technique to determine the adulteration of diesel caused by
received is converted into a proportional current and then into kerosene. The method described in this paper is simple,
voltage. The technique is simple, compact and portable. The compact and portable as compared to the methods already
results obtained are similar to the results obtained from UV- available to check the adulteration.
VIS spectrophotometer. .
2. EXPERIMENTAL METHOD
Keywords An LED is placed at one end of the fiber provides sufficient
Adulteration, kerosene, diesel radiant energy over the wavelength region where absorption is
to be measured. The light is guided inside an optical fiber
1. INTRODUCTION through the principle of total internal reflection. The cladding
Most commonly used commercial automotive fuel available of an optical fiber is removed over a small length of the fiber.
on the Indian subcontinent is diesel. They are generally Thus, evanescent wave is able to interact with the measurand,
adulterated with kerosene, as the price of kerosene, distributed providing the basis for sensing. The light received at the other
through public distribution system is kept low due to social end of the fiber is converted into a proportional current using
and economical considerations. Kerosene being the most a photodiode. This current is further converted into a
popular adulterants for diesel is much similar in chemical proportionate output voltage using a current to voltage
structure to diesel and thus mixes with almost no aberration in converter. The resulting voltage can be measured using a
the properties of automotive fuel [1-2]. sensitive digital voltmeter.

Adulterated fuels make exhaust gases more poisonous, The MFOE 71, 9508, Mexico, LED was used which provide
worsening the pollution crisis and causing acute respiratory the radiation at the wavelength of 630 nm. The length of the
infections and other ailments. Adulteration of diesel with optical fiber used was 30 cm with a core diameter of 1mm,
kerosene decreases diesel’s lubricating function, leading to from which cladding of 6 cm was removed from the central
faster wear and tear of the pistons and thus requires higher region. The material of the core is polymethylmetacrilate
maintenance costs. In addition, the soot particles carried by (PMMA), with a refractive index of 1.492. The cladding is
diesel exhausts also have unburnt and harmful hydrocarbons made of, fluorinated polymers with refraction index of 1.417.
from the kerosene [3]. The photo detector used is MFOD71, 9432, Mexico which
converts the light intensity into the proportionate current.
Hence it becomes necessary to check their adulteration as it
may affect the performance and may damage the appliances in The bulk absorbance of the diesel at different adulteration
the worst possible case. level was measured with ELICO SL 164 Double beam UV-
VIS spectrophotometer at 630 nm wavelength.
A number of methods are available for measuring adulteration
of diesel, by kerosene viz; the filter test, testing through 3. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
specific gravity, viscosity, odor based method [4], ultrasonic The experimental set-up of the proposed electronic technique
technique [5], titration technique [6-8] etc. The specific to determine the adulteration is shown in Fig. 1. It consists of
gravity measurement suffers significant inaccuracy in the 5V constant dc supply connected to the LED. The light
measurement, whereas the viscosity measurement method has emitted by an LED is proportional to the forward current.
the drawback of generating the same viscosity of the Light emitting diodes are designed to produce coherent light
adulterated sample by adding a small amount of high viscosity at 630 nm wavelength with a very narrow bandwidth.
lubricating oils.
Silicon photodiode is being used as the photo detector in the
Fiber optic sensors offer several advantages compared to circuit. The current of the photo detector is proportional to the
conventional non-optical sensors. It provides the possibility of intensity of the incident light falling on it. The photo detector
sensor technology that is lightweight, small size, potentially is in the photovoltaic mode, which offers lower noise and
multiplexable, immune to electromagnetic interference (EMI), therefore, is better suited for measurement and
without electromagnetic susceptibility (EMS), and at the same instrumentation applications. The Op Amp’s input impedance
time, it does not require electrical current at the sensing point being very high, the photo diode current flows through the
[9].

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 International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
Volume 100– No.13, August 2014

feedback resistor R . This current is converted into a V0  I L  R

proportional voltage given by:

4. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS The variation of the output voltage for each value of the
The bulk absorbance of diesel at different adulteration levels concentration of kerosene in diesel is measured with the
is measured at 630 nm of wavelength. The absorbance proposed electronic technique is shown in Fig. 3. The output
measured is with relative to pure diesel. The variation of bulk voltage decreases almost linearly with increase in the
absorbance with increase in the percentage of kerosene in percentage of kerosene in diesel.
diesel is shown in Fig. 2. It can be observed that the
absorbance increases with increase in kerosene adulteration.
0.1

0.08

0.06
Bulk absorbance

0.04

0.02

-1.53E-16
0 10 20 30 40 50
Percentage adulteration with kerosene
Figure 2. Variation of bulk absorbance of diesel with kerosene adulteration.

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 International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
Volume 100– No.13, August 2014

0.14

0.12
Output voltage Vo (Volts)

0.1

0.08

0.06
0 10 20 30 40 50

Percentage adulteration with kerosene

Figure 3. Output voltage for percentage adulteration with kerosene.

[4] A. A. Gupta, K. K. Swami, A. K. Misra, A. K. Bhatnagar

5. CONCLUSION and P. K. Mukhopadhyay, “Marker-R & D; a new
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