SC - OT Octane was brewing

[margali]

Gedney, Jeff wrote:

> hmmm....
> this is dredging up old science courses I thought long buried, but...
>
> I thought "Octane" was a reference to the "Carbon Ring" structure of
> the
> petrol.
> As I understood it, an Octane ring has eight carbon atoms and is
> "chained" together in strings of varying numbers of rings. So a "93
> octane" fuel has chains of octane rings, 93 rings long in each
> molecule.
> the more rings, the more carbon atoms available for combustion per
> molecule. Hence more power and sustained combustion at high
> compression,
> resulting in less "knocking" ( predetonation ) in a "piston" engine.
> The process of refining gasoline is done by "crack" refining, this
> uses
> a catalyst to break ("crack") the longer octane chains of the
> unrefined
> petroleum at specified points, and selectively distill off the various
>
> fuels produced in a "stepped" distillation process.
>
> A "hexane" ring has six atoms. I think that most "natural gas" fuel is
>
> hexane based.
> I understand that there are pentanes and heptanes, as well.
>
> Brandu
>

nope, reference came from The Condensed Chemical Dictionary, 8th ed.,
Gessner G. Hawley
Van Nostrand Reinhold Co
lib of cong # 75-133848
we were referring specifically to the octane rating system, not
particular chemical names.
margali
[so i have diverse taste in books...]

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