Abstract
The objective of this work was to study the effect of the total acidity and of the hydration on the corrosiveness of fuel ethanol. At the first part of the study, different ethanol samples with different total acidities were produced by: adding acetic acid in different quantities or injecting inert gas (pure nitrogen or nitrogen/carbon dioxide mixtures with three different CO2 contents (1 %, 5 %, 15 %)). The second part of the study was conducted using the ethanol samples in received condition (anhydrous) and after water addition (hydration). The ethanol hydration was made by adding 5 % (w/w) of ultrapure water. The establishment of this water content was based on the Brazilian specification for E100 (ANP Standard n. 36 (1)) as well as the fact that anhydrous ethanol already has a small amount of water. Based on the results obtained, it was concluded that the acidifying method and the initial corrosiveness of the ethanol are factors that present greater influence on the ethanol’s corrosiveness than the acidity value by itself. Additionally, it was verified that the water content increases the ethanol's corrosiveness.
