As automotive fuels

While EVOH is of interest primarily for food packaging applications attention is now being turned to non-food outlets such as automotive fuel tanks, floor heating pipes and toothpaste tubes. 

Petroleum hydrocarbons are used as automotive fuels and as monomers for the production of a range of plastics. They provide the basis of the petrochemical industry and the halogenated derivatives, which are discussed in Part 2 of this chapter. 

Ethanol, or grain alcohol, is an alcohol fuel widely used as automotive fuel. It can be made from a variety of feedstocks, mainly grains, forest resides, and solid waste. It can be used in its pure form, but is more widely used in a blended form. Gasoline blends (90% gasoline/10% ethanol) have been widely used in many areas of the country. Ethyl tertiary butyl ether (ETBE) is a feedstock for reformulated gasoline based on ethanol. 

One of the important considerations of hydrogen as automotive fuel is its compactness. Compare the number of... 

Fuel alcohol production could well expand further if government policies provide incentives for more widespread use as automotive fuel, and if technical developments continue to lower alcohol manufacturing costs. Some efficiency has occurred in overall plant operating costs due to seasonal balancing of the production of HFS and fuel alcohol. Plant capacity used in producing HFS for surging summer soft drink demands can be used during other times to produce fuel alcohol. 

Note A safe storage method for hydrogen for possible use as automotive fuel involves the use of metal hydrides from which the hydrogen is released at specified temperatures. Iron titanium hydride has been found the most satisfactory. 

For the foreseeable future, methyl tertiary butyl ether is expected to provide for the greatest demand for methanol (unless the MTBE is banned from gasoline). Utilization of methanol directly as automotive fuel has not found strong support except in specialized uses such as racing vehicles. However, research is progressing to develop other uses for methanol. Potentially large new markets for methanol may be the following ... 

Ethanol produced from sugar cane is being used as automotive fuel in Brazil. Ethanol produced from corn is being used as a gasoline additive (oxygenator) in the United States. 

Many of the uses of lead, which contributed to environmental contamination, such as automotive fuel and paints, have been phased out leaving most contamination as an historic legacy. Urban dust containing lead from these sources has been a major source of wider human exposure, but has declined markedly in recent decades as a result of safe use and abatement programs which flowed from a better understanding of the toxicity profile of lead. 

The blow molding process, which is used for the manufacture of bottles and industrial components such as automotive fuel tanks, combines elements of a number of the previous processes. A tube that is closed at one end, known as a parison, is first formed, either by injection molding or by extrusion. The heated parison is then pressurized and stretched to conform to the shape of the mold, where it solidifies. The blowing portion of the cycle is a biaxial stretch. 

Recent developments as automotive fuel tanks and 55-gal drums have been produced using multilayer materials for barrier purposes and to use up the regrind. Thus, more use of the continuous extrusion process without the accumulator due to use of multilayer materials. 

Esters of levulinic acid produced from either methanol or ethanol are under active development as blend components in diesel formulations. These esters are similar to the biodiesel fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) now used in European low emission diesel formulations. FAME has certain disadvantages as automotive fuel components in diesel due to cold flow properties (24) and gum... 

Prasad, S., Singh, A., Jain, N., Joshi, H. C. Ethanol production from sweet soighum syrup for utilization as automotive fuel in India. Energ Fuel. 2007,21,2415-2420. 

Although the principal application of blow molding has been for bottle fabrication, it is being used increasingly for other parts such as automotive fuel tanks, seat backs, flexible bellows, and toys. High density polyethylene, polypropylene, poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC), and poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) are the principal resins molded in this way. For more special applications, however, other thermoplastics such as nylon, polyacetal, ABS, polycarbonate and ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene also are used. ... 

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