Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Nippon Soken, Inc.

Naoyo Kato

Noriyasu Amano

Satoshi Taniguchi

Rie Osaki

Yukihiro Tsukasaki

Kaori Yoshida

It is an object of the present invention to provide a fuel property detection apparatus that excels in durability and reliability and is capable of accurately detecting the biofuel concentration in a mixture of hydrocarbon fuel and biofuel with a compact and simple configuration. A fuel property sensorincludes a light-emitting deviceand a light-receiving device, which detect the optical transmittance of a fuel in a fuel path; and a light-emitting deviceand a position sensitive device, which detect the refractive index of the fuel. As the optical transmittance correlates with the RME concentration of the fuel, the RME concentration can be calculated from the detected optical transmittance. As the refractive index correlates with the cetane number of the fuel, the cetane number can be calculated from the detected refractive index. The optical transmittance is detected through the use of light within a wavelength range of 640 nm to 680 nm.

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Ama-gun, Japan

Naoyo Kato