Volatile Gasoline Research Articles

Particle-Size Effects on the Volatilization of Oil in Porous Media

The volatilization process of oil with uniform size media as underlying material was studied. The weight loss of oil was determined by subtracting the columns’ pre and post weight measured on an electronic balance. The results show that the gasoline in porous media volatilizes at a logarithmic rate with respect to time, and the diesel oil in porous media volatilizes at a rate which can be best modelled as a square root of time. The volatilization coefficient of gasoline increases with the increment of particle size, and it of diesel oil decreases with increment of particle size. Binomial equation and power equation can describe the relationships of gasoline and diesel oil volatilization coefficients with mean grain size respectively.

Analysis of Organometallic Gasoline Additives with the Composition-Explicit Distillation Curve Method

Problems associated with pre-ignition of fuel in a spark-ignition engine have been documented for many years and include poor performance and structural damage in engines. These problems were addressed in the past by adding organometallic additives, such as tetraethyl lead (TEL), to the fuel. While this additive is banned, others are permitted in some jurisdictions. Two such additives are ferrocene (FC) and methylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl (MMT). In this paper, we apply the advanced distillation curve approach to the analysis of these two additives (at concentrations of 20 and 40 mg/L) in a typical gasoline. We observe that neither additive affects the volatility of gasoline until the 55% distillate volume fraction. Subsequent to this fraction, we note temperature departures from the base gasoline that progress from 1 to 7 °C for FC and from approximately 1 to 4 °C for MMT. We further note, with the composition-explicit data channel of the advanced distillation curve (ADC), that the additives are not found in the distillate until after the 55% distillate volume fraction and that the concentration in the distillate increases as the distillation proceeds to completion.

Compressed Air Vehicles

In the face of the climate crisis, petroleum dependence, and volatile gasoline prices, it is imperative to explore possible opportunities in unconventional alternative-fuel vehicles. One such option is the compressed air vehicle (CAV), or air car, powered by a pneumatic motor and onboard high-pressure gas tank. Although proponents claim that CAVs offer environmental and economic benefits over conventional vehicles, the technology has until recently not been subject to a rigorous analysis. This study characterizes the potential performance of CAVs in terms of fuel economy, driving range, carbon footprint, and fuel costs and examines their viability as a transportation option as compared with gasoline and electric vehicles. Subjects of analysis include energy density of compressed air, thermodynamic losses of expansion, CAV efficiency on a pump-to-wheels and well-to-wheels basis, and comparisons with gasoline and electric vehicles. Results show that although the CAV is a bold, unconventional solution for today's transportation challenges, it is ultimately not workable, and compares poorly with gasoline and electric vehicles in all environmental and economic metrics. Further, applications of the CAV are severely constrained because of its limited driving range. The results from this study, including the analysis of energy density and expansion losses, may be used to identify future opportunities for CAV applications. The pump-to-wheels and well-to-wheels methodology contained here establishes a framework for evaluating future CAV designs.

Energy and the Three Levels of National Security: Differentiating Energy Concerns within a National Security Context

The past several years have seen a renewed interest in the confluence of energy security and national security policy. Defining the intersection between such wideranging policy areas has been predictably inconsistent, and highly dependent on respective national and agent-based interests. At both national and multinational levels, conflicting objectives and definitions have driven confused attempts to develop singular “energy security” policies within an international security context. Since 2006, NATO has been engaged in a concerted if arduous and controversial process of defining the value the organization adds to the security environment. The new U.S. administration has put energy security front and center on its agenda, particularly in relation to foreign and security policy, but a confused interagency jumble has left many hands on the rudder of foreign energy policy. In the media as well as policy circles, cut-offs of Russian gas, Somali piracy, SCADA system vulnerabilities, terrorist attacks on Middle East pipelines, nuclear safety, and volatile gasoline prices have been too often lumped together. This article thus returns to basics, and proposes to define energy security in a national security context using a rudimentary three-level model of national security itself. That is, national security as the functionality and success of security services at the primary level; as the functioning of critical domestic services at the secondary level; and as economic well-being and prosperity at the tertiary level. While imperfectly separating admittedly interrelated spheres of national security, such a model can begin the process of differentiating challenges and threats of energy insecurity within a national security discourse. In reality, of course, similar threat-types may have different impacts across those levels, and indeed the second part of this essay shows how a few such outcome-based threat categories (such as those that portend short-run catastrophe or those that cause price fluctuations) do so. The aim is to begin a process of prioritizing different types of energy disruptions on national security. In the recent past, fears of energy insecurity have been stoked by a potent mix of rapidly rising oil and gas prices, increasingly nationalist and politicized energy policies, and greater reliance on a few foreign energy suppliers. And though en-

Correlated jumps in crude oil and gasoline during the Gulf War

This article employs a bivariate poisson jump model to investigate the relationship between the volatility of crude oil and gasoline especially during the period of the Gulf War. We find that greater jumps occurring in crude oil returns will appear in gasoline returns at the same time, but the magnitude of the co-movements in volatility falls. The covariance is relatively smaller in the Second Gulf War vs. the first conflict. The volatility of crude oil is of significantly high levels during periods of the war, yet the volatility of gasoline is not as sensitive as crude oil, particularly in the second conflict. Furthermore, the jump that occurred by the war did not lead both spot prices to a high persistent level for a long period, which fits the feature of the jump models. All these findings are important to market traders and hedging strategies.

A novel boron nitride supported Pt catalyst for VOC incineration

Low-crystalline hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) and γ-alumina supported Pt catalysts were employed to investigate the catalytic destruction of volatile organic compounds (VOC). The 0.3 wt.% Pt catalysts were prepared via incipient wetness method using H 2PtCl 6 as precursor. The oxidation of volatile gasoline was performed in a concentration of 2500 ppmv with volume hour space velocity (VHSV) near 20 000 h −1 from 100 to 500°C. Instead of deactivation, the activity of Pt/h-BN increased significantly in the second run of the oxidation reaction. The light-off temperature (50% conversion) decreased from 210 to 160–170°C in the second run of oxidation. Furthermore, 95% conversion was achieved at less than 200°C. Meanwhile, the Pt/γ-Al 2O 3 became deactivated in the second run of oxidation. The activity of Pt/h-BN was maintained for three temperature cycles. Long-term oxidation proved that Pt/h-BN activity did not decline over up to 80 h. The positive binding energy shift from XPS revealed that a few boron oxide impurities contaminated on the h-BN surface, these provided the anchorage for the Pt clusters. Metallic Pt surface was oxidized to PtO during the initial oxidation, thus enhancing the oxidation activity. Based on irreversible H 2 chemisorption, the platinum dispersion of Pt/h-BN were near 20% and did not change after oxidation at 500°C. Metal sintering was minimal, owing to the high thermal conductivity of h-BN, which prevented any hot spots of oxidation on Pt sites. In sum, experimental results demonstrated that Pt/h-BN was a promising catalyst for VOC destruction.

Nonequilibrium Mass Transfer of Multi-Component Napl in a Soil Column Venting

This study was conducted to investigate the mass transfer behavior for a multi-component system in the soil venting process. Soil venting experiments were conducted using gasoline-contaminated soil and models of local equilibrium assumption (LEA) and the first-order kinetic approach were used to describe the gasoline volatilization process. However, the focus was on the application of the kinetic model. In both models, thirteen major components of gasoline were selected for the model input and the rest of the gasoline was divided into 11 groups based on the retention times in the gas chromatography of gasoline. The LEA model had the tendency of underestimating the gas concentration at the initial phase and overestimating at the later phase due to the different volatilities of multi-components. In the kinetic model, the estimation of mass transfer coefficient values were carried out by adopting the relationship developed in the single-components system and choosing the appropriate modified Sherwood number. This method resulted in the good agreement with the simulation and the experimental results.

Simulation of volatility of commercial gasoline based on major hydrocarbon species

Fuel volatility affects evaporative emissions and driveability. It is the property that must be changed with location and season. As exhaust gas emissions regulations become stringent, the margin of fuel injection schedule to allow for the variations of fuel volatility needs to be controlled tightly. It requires better understanding of fuel volatility effects on exhaust gas emissions and driveavility. Therefore, the modeling of fuel volatility is an essential basis for all theoretical approaches to address these issues. For the modeling, commercial gasolines were simplified with 13 major hydrocarbon species based on the carbon number and hydrocarbon families. Thermodynamic states of modeled fuels were calculated by the program SUPERTRAPP released by NIST (National Institute of Science and Technology). The program is based on the Peng-Robinson equation of state. The compositions of simulated fuels were calibrated with the specifications of commercial gasolnes such as ASTM distillation curve. Comparison with real fuels shows good agreement in front-end volatility represented by Reid vapor pressure and vapor-liquid ratios.

Use of sequential purging with the static headspace method to quantify gasoline contamination

The static headspace method used with portable gas chromatographs has become an important means of field screening environmental samples for gasoline contamination. A major limitation in using this method is the simultaneous detection (coelution) of other volatile gasoline constituents with those of interest. This is particularly problematic in the quantitation of methyl- t-butyl ether (MTBE), benzene and toluene. A sequential purging technique was used with static headspace analysis to remove coeluting compounds and to improve the accuracy in the quantitation of MTBE and aromatic constituents. Aqueous constituent concentrations determined using sequential purging were generally within 20% of those determined from laboratory purge and trap/gas chromatography (EPA method SW 846-602) analyses. Without sequential purging, constituent concentrations determined using the static headspace method were found to be 2 to over 10 times that of laboratory analyses. Further, in very contaminated samples, sequential purging permitted quantitation of constituents which were not resolvable in the initial headspace analysis due to coelution.

Reduction of variation in the gasoline blending process —A case study

In an attempt to reduce the release of gasoline vapors into the atmosphere, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has placed restrictions on the volatility of commercial gasoline. In particular, they have set an upper specification limit on the gasoline's volatility as measured by the Reid vapor pressure (RVP). Exceeding the EPA's upper specification limit may result in a fine to the refiner. While there is no lower specification limit imposed by the EPA, lower RVP values require greater production costs. This article describes the efforts of one refiner to meet the EPA requirements with minimum economic disbenefit. Various statistical tools were used during this effort. The paper demonstrates a variety of successful SPC applications in the continuous process industry.

EPA Is Set To Propose Tough Fuel Volatility Regulations

RETURN TO ISSUEPREVNewsNEXTEPA Is Set To Propose Tough Fuel Volatility RegulationsLimits on volatility of gasoline and ethanol blends and changes in auto emission control systems are being considered to curb hydrocarbon emissions and combat ozone pollutionEARL V. ANDERSONView Author Information C&EN New YorkCite this: Chem. Eng. News 1987, 65, 27, 7–13Publication Date (Print):July 6, 1987Publication History Published online8 November 2010Published inissue 6 July 1987https://doi.org/10.1021/cen-v065n027.p007Copyright © 1987 American Chemical SocietyArticle Views7Altmetric-Citations1LEARN ABOUT THESE METRICSArticle Views are the COUNTER-compliant sum of full text article downloads since November 2008 (both PDF and HTML) across all institutions and individuals. These metrics are regularly updated to reflect usage leading up to the last few days.Citations are the number of other articles citing this article, calculated by Crossref and updated daily. Find more information about Crossref citation counts.The Altmetric Attention Score is a quantitative measure of the attention that a research article has received online. Clicking on the donut icon will load a page at altmetric.com with additional details about the score and the social media presence for the given article. Find more information on the Altmetric Attention Score and how the score is calculated. Share Add toView InAdd Full Text with ReferenceAdd Description ExportRISCitationCitation and abstractCitation and referencesMore Options Share onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InReddit PDF (918 KB) SUBJECTS:Fossil fuels Get e-Alerts

EPA May Modify Du Pont Waiver For Methanol Fuel Blends

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) granted a Clean Air ACt waiver to DuPont's blendstock of methanol and other cosolvent alcohols for use in unleaded gasoline. The waiver included some stringent fuel volatility requirements to control evaporative emissions that have kept the waiver from becoming the marketing tool for fuel alcohols that everyone expected it to be. EPA seems willing to amend the waiver as long as evaporative emissions controls are kept, but there are some difficult procedural issues to resolve first. To date, only small amounts of alcohol blends have been sold under the DuPont waiver because the blendstock tends to increase the volatility of gasoline.

Effects of Gasoline Volatility on Warm-up of Automobiles

The effect of mid-range volatility of motor gasoline on warm-up performance of modern Japanese cars was investigated in an all weather chassis dynamometer room, using six late model cars and twelve fuels of different volatility. The warm-up performance of cars and fuels was evaluated in terms of the time required to completely warm-up (warm-up time), the carknock disappearing time and the numerical driveability demerit rating.The warm-up performance was considerably different with different cars tested. Car with a rotary engine performed best. The warm-up performance correlated well with the 30% and 50% evaporated temperatures of a fuel. Also, the warm-up time was best correlated with 50% evaporated temperature, and the carknock disappearing time and driveability demerit were related best to 30% evaporated temperature.

Determination of Volatility of Gasoline

Determination of Volatility of Gasoline