Hello and welcome my friends from steemit in this opportunity I have titled my post "It smells like chemistry". They will ask themselves why that name as they say Chemistry, indeed, smells, and everything that smells is, indeed, Chemistry.
I would like to discuss an interesting topic, and that it falls within what I like to call "Chemistry". And is that in recent years vehicles (cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles ...) have changed our way of life and cities have had to adapt to them in every way (streets, parking, gas stations). In short, the daily image of gas stations full of vehicles is completely normal in our society, gasoline is nowadays one of the most precious products because without it our life would be impossible as we know it.
However ... do you really know what is the yellowish liquid that we put in our vehicles? Do we know how to get it? Do we know what it is composed of? Why are there different types (95, 98)? Undoubtedly, Chemistry (along with other sciences) can answer those questions, let's see.
Gasoline is a liquid composed of a mixture of hydrocarbons, obtained in the process of oil refining, whose main function is how to fuel cars.
Hydrocarbons are a family of chemical compounds that, as their name suggests, are composed of hydrogen (H) and carbon (C) exclusively. They are the basic compounds of petroleum, in which we find a great variety of them. Hydrocarbons differ in whether they form linear chains (paraffin), branched (isoparaffins), if they are cyclic (naphthenes and aromatics) or if they contain double bonds (olefins).
Gasoline is composed of hydrocarbons whose boiling point is approximately between 40 and 150 ºC, which are usually between 5 and 9 carbons. That is to say, that of all the hydrocarbons that make up the oil, this makeup gasoline.
The hydrocarbons are separated from such a complex mixture by a process called refined, said process consists of 4 stages that are the following:
- Fractionation: it consists of a fractional distillation of "crude oil" (the oil resulting from removing impurities from gases, water and solids after its extraction from the subsoil), in which the different hydrocarbons that make up the mixture are separated. , from lower to higher boiling point. That is to say, the crude oil is heated slowly, and in this way, the different hydrocarbons are evaporated as it reaches its boiling point. When they evaporate they can be "trapped" and separated into different compartments. Thus, methane (bp .: -162 ° C) can be separated from isooctane (bp .: 99 ° C).
- Cracking: once all the fractions are obtained, some can be transformed into others through chemical reactions. Regularly light fractions (natural gas, gasoline) are usually of greater industrial interest so that a fraction of hydrocarbons of 10-14 carbons can be broken chemically in fractions of 5-7 carbons.
- Reformed: this process is already somewhat more oriented to light fractions of gasoline, aimed at improving its quality as a fuel. To do this, chemical modifications are made in specific hydrocarbons (hydrogenate, dehydrogenate, isomerize ...) to improve the Octane Index of gasoline.
- Purification: finally the purpose of the purification process is the gasoline of undesirable compounds, such as sulfur derivatives (that is, containing sulfur).
The 95 octane gasoline marks the minimum octane allowed. Among its advantages, we can count the best price and the ease it provides for cold starts. It is less dense, therefore lighter and is the one used in most cars.
Some advantages of this type of gasoline would be ...
- Protects and lengthens the life of the engine.
- Keeps important parts of our propeller clean.
- Optimizes the performance of the vehicle in question.
- Reduces sulfur in its composition, thus lowering the level of polluting emissions.
98 octane gasoline, we can say that it has a higher level of refinement at the chemical level, providing a slight difference in performance and consumption, although, as we have indicated, a high power and displacement will be necessary to perceive it.
Some advantages of this gasoline would be...
- Lower sulfur content (even less than 95), or product totally free of this compound, making this fuel a very clean option.
- Its composition has new last generation additives.
- Improves engine performance, protection and reduces consumption, especially in the long term as it cleans the system.
- Extends catalyst life.
- Optimizes the performance of high-end vehicles.