Identifying irregular gasoline and ethanol blends in Brazil using a Love-wave sensor

Abstract

The quality control of commercial fuels is of paramount importance for ensuring regulatory compliance, engine performance and consumer protection. In Brazil, the composition of gasoline and anhydrous ethanol fuel blends is subject to specific regulatory requirements, and deviations from the prescribed proportions may compromise fuel quality and facilitate economically motivated adulteration. This study proposes a preliminary methodology for the identification of irregularities in binary gasoline and anhydrous ethanol fuel blends based on a Love-wave sensor. The proposed approach exploits the multiphysics response of the sensor to variations in the physicochemical properties of the liquid mixtures, which are directly influenced by their volumetric composition. The results demonstrate that changes in the proportions of the constituent liquids produce distinguishable variations in the sensor response, enabling the identification of different blend compositions. The proposed methodology therefore demonstrates the feasibility of employing Love-wave sensors as a rapid and potentially field-deployable screening tool for the preliminary assessment of irregular fuel blends in Brazil. Such an approach may contribute to more efficient fuel quality surveillance by reducing analysis time and operational costs while supporting subsequent confirmatory analyses using conventional laboratory techniques.