[Lad]

Hello,

I am currently studying energy and rates of reactions in 12th grade chemistry. Our assessment this term is to devise and conduct an experiment that answers the following question:

"There are good economic reasons why alcohol blended fuels are now in use. But what blend is best? What reasons (other than economic) do we have for blending fuels?"

I am not asking for the answer to this question, that's for me to find out when I conduct the experiment. But what I am asking are the following questions:

1. What does the term 'alcohol-blended fuel' specifically mean? I know of ethanol, but are there other alcohols blended into fuels? (petroleum, in this case)
2. If so, what are the ratios of these blends? (I am aware of E10 (10% ethanol by volume), but that is the extent of my knowledge)
3. What would be a basic experiment to test these different blends?
4. How would the nature of the blended alcohol (both percentage blend and type) affect the enthalpy and rate of the reaction (combustion)?
5. What other factors (temperature, pH, pressure, etc) would affect the enthalpy and rate of the reaction?

Thankyou for your time.

[billnotgatez]

I wonder if octane rating is important rather than just BTU

[cliverlong]

Hello,

I am currently studying energy and rates of reactions in 12th grade chemistry. Our assessment this term is to devise and conduct an experiment that answers the following question:

"There are good economic reasons why alcohol blended fuels are now in use. But what blend is best? What reasons (other than economic) do we have for blending fuels?"

I am not asking for the answer to this question, that's for me to find out when I conduct the experiment. But what I am asking are the following questions:

1. What does the term 'alcohol-blended fuel' specifically mean? I know of ethanol, but are there other alcohols blended into fuels? (petroleum, in this case)

Think about other alcohols that are "similar" to ethanol
How is ethanol produced and from what starting materials?
Ask same question of other alcohols.
then compare costs and quantities of alcohols that can be produced

2. If so, what are the ratios of these blends? (I am aware of E10 (10% ethanol by volume), but that is the extent of my knowledge)

E85

3. What would be a basic experiment to test these different blends?

Search on "enthalpy of combustion of ethanol" and "calorimeter"
Probably good idea to determine enthalpy of combustion of unblended petrol/gasoline and ethanol as reference points

4. How would the nature of the blended alcohol (both percentage blend and type) affect the enthalpy and rate of the reaction (combustion)?

do the experiment and find out.
How would you measure rate of reaction in a calorimeter?

5. What other factors (temperature, pH, pressure, etc) would affect the enthalpy and rate of the reaction?[/b]

Can you modify the experiment to change these variables?

Thankyou for your time.