Hydrocarbon compounds octane numbers

Refiners will turn to reformulated motor fuels where the octane number will be increased by alkylate or oxygenated compounds. It has indeed been shown for a long time that oxygenated compounds, alcohols, ethers and ketones Improved the octane number of hydrocarbon-based blends (Whitcomb, 1975). 

Unbumt gasoline and cracked hydrocarbons such as ethylene and propylene are also substantial constituents of exhaust. Gasoline contains additives such as benzene, toluene and branched hydrocarbons to achieve the necessary octane numbers. The direct emission of these volatile compounds, e.g. at gas stations, is a significant source of air pollution. Leaded fuels, containing antiknock additions such as tetra-ethyl-lead, have been abandoned because lead poisons both human beings and the three-way exhaust catalyst, especially for the removal of NO by rhodium. 

An arbitrary mixture of hydrocarbons is compared to a mixture of these two compounds, with its octane number that equal to the appropriate mixture of these standard compounds. Some molecules and their octane ratings are indicated in Table 2-6. Aromatics have a high octane number (toluene is 120), and some compounds such as tetraethyl lead have a strong octane enhancement when added to other mixtures (blending octane number). Oxygenates such as ethanol and ethers (MTBE) have fairly high octane numbers and supposedly produce less pollution, either alone or blended with hydrocarbons. 

The new Brownsville, Tex., plant for the manufacture of synthetic liquid fuels from natural gas makes use of this reaction to increase the octane number of its product by as much as 20 units. Synthetic naphtha produced over iron catalyst is highly olefinic and contains substantial amounts of straight-chain isomers with terminal double bonds (8). The shifting of these double bonds toward the center of the molecule may be accomplished by vapor-phase treatment employing synthetic cracking catalyst in the fluid state, under mild catalytic cracking conditions. Oxygenated compounds also present are converted under the isomerization conditions to hydrocarbons and water. 

Both before and after the commercial introduction of tetraethyllead antiknocks, many other substances have been considered as octane-number improvers. Chief among them are hydrocarbons, amines, and other organometallic compounds. 

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