Octane Rating - Principles

Principles

Octanes are a family of hydrocarbon that are typical components of gasoline. They are colourless liquids that boil around 125 °C (260 °F). One member of the octane family, isooctane, is used as a reference standard to benchmark the tendency of gasoline, petrol, or benzin fuels to resist self-igniting. Self-ignition leads to inefficiencies (or even engine damage) if it occurs during compression prior to the desired position of the piston in the cylinder as appropriate for valve and ignition timing. The problem of premature ignition is referred to as pre-ignition and also as engine knock, which is a sound that is made when the fuel ignites too early in the compression stroke.

Severe knock causes severe engine damage, such as broken connecting rods, melted pistons, melted or broken valves and other components. The octane rating is a measure of how likely a gasoline or liquid petroleum fuel is to self ignite. The higher the number, the less likely an engine is to pre-ignite and suffer damage.

The most typically used engine management systems found in automobiles today monitor the level of knock that is being produced by the fuel being used. In modern computer controlled engines, the timing of the ignition will be automatically altered by the fuel management system to reduce the pre-ignition to an acceptable level.

The octane rating of gasoline is measured in a test engine and is defined by comparison with the mixture of 2,2,4-trimethylpentane (iso-octane) and heptane that would have the same anti-knocking capacity as the fuel under test: the percentage, by volume, of 2,2,4-trimethylpentane in that mixture is the octane number of the fuel. For example, petrol with the same knocking characteristics as a mixture of 90% iso-octane and 10% heptane would have an octane rating of 90. A rating of 90 does not mean that the petrol contains just iso-octane and heptane in these proportions, but that it has the same detonation resistance properties. Because some fuels are more knock-resistant than iso-octane, the definition has been extended to allow for octane numbers higher than 100.

Octane ratings are not indicators of the energy content of fuels. (See section 4 of this page and heating value). It is only a measure of the fuel's tendency to burn in a controlled manner, rather than exploding in an uncontrolled manner. Where the octane number is raised by blending in ethanol, energy content per volume is reduced. Ethanol BTUs can be compared with gasoline BTUs in Heat of combustion tables.

It is possible for a fuel to have a Research Octane Number (RON) more than 100, because ISO-octane is not the most knock-resistant substance available. Racing fuels, avgas, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and alcohol fuels such as methanol may have octane ratings of 110 or significantly higher. Typical "octane booster" gasoline additives include MTBE, ETBE, isooctane and toluene. Lead in the form of tetra-ethyl lead was once a common additive, but its use for fuels for road vehicles has been progressively phased-out worldwide, beginning in the 1970s.