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Old 18-11-2016, 06:59 PM   #2
Luddite
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Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Southampton
Bike: M1100evo
Posts: 2,465
First of all, I checked some regular unleaded, which I knew should contain ethanol, just to make sure the process worked.



First, I poured 220ml of unleaded into a measuring cylinder then added 30ml of water. Being heavier, the water sinks to the bottom. You can see the boundary line in picture A. I then shook it up to mix in the water and left it for 30 minutes. You can see in picture B that phase separation has taken place, the ethanol has come out of suspension with the petrol, bonded with the water and sunk to the bottom. The boundary line has risen from 30ml to 40ml. This certainly proves there's ethanol in this unleaded and suggests a level of about 4.5%.

Knowing that the process works, I then tried the same thing on identical quantities of Esso super unleaded. Here are the pictures:



Well that's reassuring! Absolutely no change whatsoever. The boundary line, as before, started at 30ml and, after a full hour (just to be sure), was still at 30ml.

This is an easy test with no special equipment needed so, if you've got any doubts about your own petrol supply, why not try it yourself?

Last edited by Luddite; 04-03-2020 at 05:08 PM.. Reason: Removal of photobucket images
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