A simple contactless impedance probe for determination of ethanol in gasoline

A contactless impedance probe with either a planar or a tubular detection cell has been developed and tested for rapid determination of the ethanol content in gasoline. The probe cell is connected as a capacitor determining the frequency of an electronic astable multivibrator. The multivibrator frequency depends on the permittivity of the test gasoline in the detection cell which is strongly influenced by the ethanol content as one of the major polar additives. The ethanol concentrations obtained with the impedance probe agree, within the reliability interval, with those obtained by GC-MS measurements and fall into the limits recommended by the appropriate European Standard. The gasoline samples are analyzed without any pretreatment.