Technical Paper
Materials Selection for Gasoline/Methanol Blend Fuel Systems
1993-03-01
930447
The Clean Air Act of 1990 stipulated tougher industry-wide standards for environmental pollution control from mobile sources. One way the U.S. automobile manufacturers may achieve compliance with the more stringent federal standards is to produce cars which utilize cleaner burning methanol blend fuels. However, the major shortcoming of the methanol blend powered vehicle is the accelerated corrosion of metallic components in direct contact with the fuel. Consequently, a laboratory test program was developed to screen suitable materials for the corrosive fuel environment. The metals selected for this test series were based on corrosion data from the National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE). They include stainless steel 304, 1010 steel and 356 aluminum. Established protective coatings and surface treatments, namely, electroless nickel, DACROMETB and conventional anodizing were also included in the test series.
