  The combustion of liquid fuels emulsified with water have long generated
interest in the internal combustion engine research community. Typically, these
fuels consist of small quantities of water emulsified with ultrasonification or
other mechanical methods into a pure or multicomponent hydrocarbon fuel. These
emulsion fuels promise significant advantages over base liquid fuels, such as
better fuel economy, colder combustion temperatures, less NOx emissions, and so
on. However, a significant practical disadvantage of these fuels is that they
are prone to phase separation after they have been prepared. Till date, an
objective but economical method of identifying the various degrees of phase
separation has not been identified. Present research presents such a method and
shows its utilization in analyzing the stability of water and hydrocarbon fuel
emulsions over time without the addition of chemical stabilizers. It is
expected that present research will pave the way in establishing this method to
study the stability of other specialized multicomponent fluids.
