OCTANE NUMBER An octane number is a number which reflects a fuel's resistance to knocking.

Knocking occurs when fuel combusts prematurely or explodes in an engine, causing a distinctive noise which resembles knocking, rattling, or pinging. Engine knock is undesired, as it can cause damage to the engine, and it indicates that the engine is not running as efficiently as it could be. Many engines come with specific octane rating recommendations. Octane numbers are obtained by testing a fuel in controlled circumstances. Two different types of octane number can be obtained: the research octane number (RON) or motor octane number (MON). These numbers are obtained by testing fuels in different circumstances, with the MON putting more stress on the engine to see how fuels perform in challenging circumstances. The octane number ratings on a gas pump often reflect an average value. These numbers are calibrated against a scale. Two chemicals, heptane and iso-octane, are used to create benchmarks on the scale, with heptane being zero, and iso-octane being 100. When a fuel is tested in an engine, it is compared with a blend of heptane and iso-octane to see which blend most closely matches the fuel performance. If the blend includes 20% heptane and 80% iso-octane, for example, the fuel will have an octane number of 80. Octane numbers can be adjusted by putting additives in the fuel which will adjust the level of knock. It is possible to have an octane number beyond 100, as iso-octane is just a point on the scale. High performance fuels often have very high octane numbers. Rocket fuels, for example, have octane numbers over 100. The higher the octane number, the more pressure the fuel needs to combust. This is desirable, as the goal is to prevent actual explosions, and instead to create controlled ignition of the fuel. If a low octane fuel is put in an engine designed for high octane fuel, the fuel will cause explosions, damaging the engine, because the engine puts a great deal of pressure on the fuel by design.

The octane rating is a measure of the tendency of a fuel to auto-ignite. The lower the octane rating the more likely it is that auto-ignition will occur. Clearly, high-octane fuels are more desirable. The scale is an arbitrary one. Two compounds were chosen, heptane (C7H16) and 2,2,4trimethylpentane (CH3C(CH3)2CH2CH(CH3)CH3). Heptane has a high tendency to auto-ignite, so it was given an octane number of 0. On the other hand, 2,2,4-trimethylpentane has a low tendency to auto-ignite, so it was given a rating of 100. A mixture of these two compounds containing 95% of 2,2,4-trimethylpentane is said to have an octane number of 95 (2,2,4-trimethylpentane was formerly known as iso-octane, hence the terms octane number or octane rating). A mixture of compounds with an identical tendency to auto-ignite, under the same conditions of compression, would thus also be given an octane rating of 95. A compound that is less likely to auto-ignite than pure 2,2,4trimethylpentane would have an octane rating of more than 100. Measurement methods Research Octane Number (RON) The most common type of octane rating worldwide is the Research Octane Number (RON). RON is determined by running the fuel in a test engine with a variable compression ratio under controlled conditions, and comparing the results with those for mixtures of iso-octane and n-heptane. Motor Octane Number (MON) There is another type of octane rating, called Motor Octane Number (MON), or the aviation lean octane rating, which is a better measure of how the fuel behaves when under load, as it is determined at 900 rpm engine speed, instead of the 600 rpm for RON. MON testing uses a similar test engine to that used in RON testing, but with a preheated fuel mixture, higher engine speed, and variable ignition timing to further stress the fuel's knock resistance. Depending on the composition of the fuel, the MON of a modern gasoline will be about 8 to 10 points lower than the RON, however there is no direct link between RON and MON. Normally, fuel specifications require both a minimum RON and a minimum MON.

Anti-Knock Index (AKI) In most countries, including Australia and all of those in Europe, the "headline" octane rating shown on the pump is the RON, but in Canada, the United States and some other countries, like Brazil, the headline number is the average of the RON and the MON, called the AntiKnock Index (AKI, and often written on pumps as (R+M)/2). It may also sometimes be called the Pump Octane Number (PON). Difference between RON and AKI Because of the 8 to 10 point difference noted above, the octane rating shown in the United States is 4 to 5 points lower than the rating shown elsewhere in the world for the same fuel. See the table in the following section for a comparison. Observed Road Octane Number (RdON) The final type of octane rating, called Observed Road Octane Number (RdON), is derived from testing gasolines in real world multi-cylinder engines, normally at wide open throttle. It was developed in the 1920s and is still reliable today. The original testing was done in cars on the road but as technology developed the testing was moved to chassis dynamometers with environmental controls to improve consistency. CETANE NUMBER Cetane number or CN is a measurement of the combustion quality of diesel fuel during compression ignition. It is a significant expression of diesel fuel quality among a number of other measurements that determine overall diesel fuel quality. Cetane number or CN is actually a measure of a fuel's ignition delay; the time period between the start of injection and the first identifiable pressure increase during combustion of the fuel. In a particular diesel engine, higher cetane fuels will have shorter ignition delay periods than lower cetane fuels. Cetane numbers are only used for the relatively light distillate diesel oils. For heavy (residual) fuel oil two other scales are used CCAI and CII. Typical values Generally, diesel engines run well with a CN from 40 to 55. Fuels with higher cetane number which have shorter ignition delays provide more time for the fuel combustion process

to be completed. Hence, higher speed diesels operate more effectively with higher cetane number fuels. There is no performance or emission advantage when the CN is raised past approximately 55; after this point, the fuel's performance hits a plateau. In Europe, diesel cetane numbers were set at a minimum of 38 in 1994 and 40 in 2000. The current standard for diesel sold in European Union, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland is set in EN 590, with a minimum cetane index of 46 and a minimum cetane number of 51. Premium diesel fuel can have a cetane number as high as 60. In North America, most states adopt ASTM D975 as their diesel fuel standard and the minimum cetane number is set at 40, with typical values in the 42-45 range. Premium diesels may or may not have higher cetane, depending on the supplier. Premium diesel often use additives to improve CN and lubricity, detergents to clean the fuel injectors and minimize carbon deposits, water dispersants, and other additives depending on geographical and seasonal needs. Dimethyl ether may prove advantageous as a future diesel fuel as it has a high cetane rating and can be produced as a biofuel. Alkyl nitrates (principally 2-ethyl hexyl nitrate) and di-tert-butyl peroxide are used as additives to raise the cetane number. Biodiesel from vegetable oil sources have been recorded as having a cetane number range of 46 to 52, and animal-fat based biodiesels cetane numbers range from 56 to 60 Chemical Relevance Cetane is an un-branched open chain alkane molecule that ignites very easily under compression, so it was assigned a cetane number of 100, while alpha-methyl naphthalene was assigned a cetane number of 0. All other hydrocarbons in diesel fuel are indexed to cetane as to how well they ignite under compression. The cetane number therefore measures how quickly the fuel starts to burn (auto-ignites) under diesel engine conditions. Since there are hundreds of components in diesel fuel, with each having a different cetane quality, the overall cetane number of the diesel is the average cetane quality of all the components. Measuring Cetane Number To measure the cetane number properly is rather difficult, as it requires burning the fuel in a special, hard-to-find, diesel engine called a Cooperative Fuel Research(CFRTM) engine, under standard test conditions. The operator of the (CFRTM)engine uses a handwheel to increase the compression ratio (and therefore the peak pressure within the cylinder) of the engine until the time between fuel injection and ignition is 2.407ms. The resulting cetane number is then calculated by determining which mixture of cetane (hexadecane) and isocetane (2,2,4,4,6,8,8-heptamethylnonane) will result in the same ignition delay.

Ignition quality tester Another reliable method of measuring the derived cetane number of diesel fuel is the Ignition Quality Tester (IQTTM). This instrument applies a simpler, more robust approach to CN measurement than the CFR. Fuel is injected into a constant volume combustion chamber in which the ambient temperature is approximately 575C. The fuel combusts, and the high rate of pressure change within the chamber defines the start of combustion. The ignition delay of the fuel can then be calculated as the time difference between the start of fuel injection and the start of combustion. The fuel's derived cetane number can then be calculated using an empirical inverse relationship to ignition delay. Fuel Ignition Tester Another reliable method of measuring the derived cetane number of diesel fuel is the Fuel Ignition Tester (FITTM). This instrument applies a simpler, more robust approach to CN measurement than the CFR. Fuel is injected into a constant volume combustion chamber in which the ambient temperature is approximately 575C. The fuel combusts, and the high rate of pressure change within the chamber defines the start of combustion. The ignition delay of the fuel can then be calculated as the time different between the start of fuel injection and the start of combustion. The fuel's derived cetane number can then be calculated using an empirical inverse relationship to ignition delay. Cetane index Another method that fuel-users control quality is by using the Cetane index (CI), which is a calculated number based on the density and distillation range of the fuel. There are various versions of this, depending on whether you use metric or Imperial units, and how many distillation points are used. These days most oil companies use the '4-point method', ASTM D4737, based on density, 10% 50% and 90% recovery temperatures. The '2-point method' is defined in ASTM D976, and uses just density and the 50% recovery temperature. This 2-point method tends to over-estimate cetane index and is not recommended. Cetane index calculations can not account for cetane improver additives and therefore do not measure total cetane number for additized diesel fuels. Diesel engine operation is primarily related to the actual cetane number and the cetane index is simply an estimation of the base (unadditized) cetane number.

How Does Octane Number Affect Engine Performance? Higher octane ratings correlate to higher activation energies. Activation energy is the amount of energy necessary to start a chemical reaction. Since higher octane fuels have higher activation energies, it is less likely that a given compression will cause autoignition. It might seem odd that fuels with higher octane ratings are used in more powerful engines, since such fuels ignite less easily. However, an uncontrolled ignition is not desired in a spark ignition engine. A fuel with a higher octane rating can be run at a higher compression ratio without causing detonation. Compression is directly related to power and to thermodynamic efficiency (see engine tuning), so engines that require higher octane usually deliver more motive power and do more work for a given BTU or calorie of fuel. Engine power is a function of the fuel, as well as the engine design, and is related to octane rating of the fuel. Power is limited by the maximum amount of fuel-air mixture that can be forced into the combustion chamber. When the throttle is partially open, only a small fraction of the total available power is produced because the manifold is operating at pressures far below atmospheric. In this case, the octane requirement is far lower than when the throttle is opened fully and the manifold pressure increases to atmospheric pressure, or higher in the case of supercharged or turbocharged engines. Many high-performance engines are designed to operate with a high maximum compression, and thus demand high-octane premium gasoline. A common misconception is that power output or fuel mileage can be improved by burning higher octane fuel than a particular engine was designed for. The power output of an engine depends in part on the energy density of its fuel, but similar fuels with different octane ratings have similar density. Since switching to a higher octane fuel does not add any more hydrocarbon content or oxygen, the engine cannot produce more power. However, burning fuel with a lower octane rating than required by the engine often reduces power output and efficiency one way or another. If the engine begins to detonate, that reduces power and efficiency for the reasons stated above. Many modern car engines feature a knock sensor a small piezoelectric microphone which detects knock, and then sends a signal to the engine control unit to retard the ignition timing. Retarding the ignition timing reduces the tendency to detonate, but also reduces power output and fuel efficiency.

Most fuel stations have two storage tanks (even those offering 3 or 4 octane levels), and you are given a mixture of the higher and lower octane fuel. Purchasing premium simply means more fuel from the higher octane tank; the detergents in the fuel are often the same. The octane rating was developed by chemist Russell Marker at the Ethyl Corporation in 1926. The selection of n-heptane as the zero point of the scale was due to its availability in high purity. Other isomers of heptane produced from crude oil have greatly different ratings.

How Does Cetane Number Affect Engine Performance? Just as there is no benefit to using gasoline with an octane rating higher than recommended for a specific engine by its manufacturer, using diesel fuel with a higher cetane rating than is required for a particular diesel engine design yields no bonuses. Cetane number requirements depend mainly on engine design, size, speed of operation and load variations--and to a slightly lesser extent, atmospheric conditions. Conversely, running a diesel engine on fuel with a lower than recommended cetane number can result in rough operation (noise and vibration), low power output, excessive deposits and wear, and hard starting. Cetane Numbers of Various Diesel Fuels Normal modern highway diesels run best with a fuel rated between 45 and 55. Following is a list cetane numbers varying grades and types of compression ignition diesel fuels: Regular diesel--48 Premium diesel--55 Biodiesel (B100)--55 Biodiesel blend (B20)--50 Synthetic diesel55