Effect of oxygenated compounds in formulated type EURO gasolines [articol]

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental study regarding the effect of replacing aromatic compounds and partially olephinics from a catalytic cracking gasoline with oxygenated compounds (ethanol and ethyl tert-butyl ether (ETBE)), in motor octane number (MON) and research octane number (RON). For this study, there has been chosen two types of catalytic cracking gasolines, similar with conventional gasoline. The first type of gasoline that contains 46.6 % volume aromatic hydrocarbons has the MON 83.6 and the RON 95.7. And the second type contains 33.6% volume aromatic hydrocarbons, has the MON 83.2 and the RON 94.4. Although imposed by quality requirements, decreasing the content of aromatic hydrocarbons has the effect of reducing the RON to the lowest limit stipulated in the EN 228 quality standard. In order to compensate the octane loss, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10% volume ethanol has been added, and the conclusion was that, in the case of both gasolines a slight increase in the MON, and a significant impact on the RON. Adding 5, 10, 15, 20% volume ETBE, has a more significant effect on the MON of both gasolines, with an average of 1.1 octanes. After performing the experimental study, we came to the conclusion that by increasing the ethanol or ETBE content, the olephinic content of both gasolines is reduced, which is a positive thing, because these reformulated gasolines respect the new quality standards imposed.