The Detection of Kerosene as an Adulterant in Gasoline

Fuel adulteration is associated with environmental pollution, engine performance, and tax loss. Different key characteristics of gasoline were tested using an American Society for Testing and Materials/Institute of Petroleum/Indian Standards (ASTM/IP/IS) method. The results indicate that there is a large fluctuation of fuel properties among the oil marketing companies. In this study, three different grades of gasoline samples were adulterated with 5, 7, and 10% kerosene. These samples were analyzed for the following characteristics to detect adulterants in commercial gasoline: chromatographic analysis, atmospheric distillation (ASTM D 86-1996), and the filter paper test. The first two methods are scientific approaches to detecting adulterants in gasoline and the third is useful in retail outlets. This method has been given emphasis to detect public distribution system (PDS) kerosene as an adulterant in commercial gasoline; gasoline is frequently adulterated with PDS kerosene in Asian countries due to its low cost.