Refractometric Fiber Optic Adulteration Level Detector for Diesel

Adulteration of diesel with kerosene is common malpractice since kerosene is cheaper than diesel. Such adulteration results in increased pollution, reduced lifetime of components, decrease in engine or machine performance etc. This paper presents a simple, extrinsic intensity modulated fiber optic sensor for determining adulteration of diesel by kerosene. The sensing principle is based on variation in reflected light intensity due to change in the refractive index of adulterated diesel. A parallel two fiber sensor probe consisting transmitting fiber and receiving fiber with a reflector is used as a sensor. An adulterated diesel is considered as a medium between sensor probe and reflector. A prototype is fabricated and tested in laboratory for different levels of adulteration of diesel by kerosene.. The sensor is useful due to its simple construction, operation, safety with inflammable fuels and the possibility of making it compact and portable for in-situ measurements. Microcontroller is used for incorporating totally automatic and adding further sophistication in final display so that it is more useful to layman i.e. society. Thus inexpensive and portable adulteration level detector is proposed.