Petroleum reactions with hydroxyl radical

NMHC. A large number of hydrocarbons are present in petroleum deposits, and their release during refining or use of fuels and solvents, or during the combustion of fuels, results in the presence of more than a hundred different hydrocarbons in polluted air (43,44). These unnatural hydrocarbons join the natural terpenes such as isoprene and the pinenes in their reactions with tropospheric hydroxyl radical. In saturated hydrocarbons (containing all single carbon-carbon bonds) abstraction of a hydrogen (e,g, R4) is the sole tropospheric reaction, but in unsaturated hydrocarbons HO-addition to a carbon-carbon double bond is usually the dominant reaction pathway. 

A chemical compound formed by the reaction of an organic or inorganic acid with an alcohol or with another organic compound containing the hydroxyl (-OH) radical. The reaction involves replacement of the hydrogen of the acid with a hydrocarbon group. The name of an ester indicates its derivation e.g., the ester resulting from the reaction of ethyl alcohol and acetic acid is called ethyl acetate. Esters have important uses in the formulation of some petroleum additives and synthetic lubricants. 

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