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OAR Box 1846 

Prepped by Ollie Stewart 

Document Number: 

4) ll-B-1 

Docket Number: 

A-90-07 

Printed 11/18/2008 7:30:14 AM Sheet 4 of 93 
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MEMORANDUM 

SUBJECT: 

FROM: 

TO: 

THROUGH: 

k-<*D-07 "JT-fc-/ 

UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY 

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20460 

| | i j AUG - 91990 

[[„„„„ nrnrr OFI 

EPA AIR POggggTM 

Characterization of Registered Fuel Additives . .\n<\ 

David J. Kortum, Environmental Engineer;V\fwN \ IM M «l U HP ' 

Fuels Section [ W *

 v 

Barry D. Nussbaum, Acting Director 

Field Operations and Support Division 

James W. Caldwell, Chief, Fuels Section 

I have completed a preliminary investigation of the compounds 

registered as components of additives in the Fuel and Fuel Additive 

Registration data base. The summary of the results of that 

investigation are contained herein. Please refer to the attached 

scaled graphic (Figure 1) as figures are presented throughout this 

memorandum. It should also be noted that, since the database 

changes continuously as new additives are added and removed, the 

numbers contained herein are close approximations. 

I. Method of Analysis 

The composition of additives registered in the data base is 

reported as a list of components. These components are either 

chemical compounds (which may be fairly pure or may be a mixture 

of similar compounds) or previously registered additives. 

Additives typically are composed of between one and four 

components. Currently, the only available way to categorize 

additive components is by the name of the component which is 

entered as a string of characters in the database. By searching 

these strings for certain key words, the number of components 

falling into a specific category can be identified. If a component 

of an additive is already registered, the identification number of 

the additive (ID) is also entered as part of the string identifying 

that component. Since these ID strings have certain common 

characters, previously registered components can be identified as 

a group using the common parts of the ID string entry. 

The naming of chemical compounds or mixtures of chemical 

compounds is not an exact nomenclature system. Even within 

standardized systems for naming organic compounds, many "common" 

names, not subject to rigorous rules of nomenclature, have endured 

and are considered acceptable. Additionally, there are alternate 
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methods for naming chemicals even within a rigorous system. 

Therefore, any string search to classify chemicals cannot be 

perfectly exact. (Later in this memo, I will make a recommendation 

concerning one possible solution to this drawback in our current 

system.) Furthermore, some compounds legitimately belong to more 

than one chemical group. Under the "rules" of a string search, an 

"oil solvent" could end up being in the solvent group and the "oil" 

group. A "polyether amine" could end up in the "polymer" group, 

the "ether group" and the "amine group". Thus, it is important to 

keep in mind that many of the groups in the attached figure 

actually overlap. After reviewing a large number of additives over 

several months, it is my opinion that the overlap is limited; 

however, the actual extent of the overlap is not currently known. 

I hope to further refine these categories in the near future. 

II. Discussion and Conclusions 

We currently have registered 5,653 additives containing 14,752 

components. Of these, 3,784 additives containing 10,398 components 

are active. (If a manufacturer stops sale of a compound, a 

notification is sent to us to remove the additive from active 

status.) Of the 3,784 active additives, 1,172 are relabels 

composed solely of previously registered additives. This leaves 

2,612 additives which contain 7,083 compounds that have not been 

previously registered. These 7,083 compounds compose the primary 

data base of currently used chemicals found in fuel additives and 

it is from this starting point that categorization begins. 

Below is a list of chemical categories and the number of 

additive components which fall into those categories using the 

category name in a string search. (I have actually produced two 

lists. The first is alphabetic, the second is in order of the 

number of components found in that category.) Please keep in mind 

that the numbers listed here indicate the number of components 

which contain the string of characters called the category. Also, 

please refer to Figure 1 which graphically indicates the relative 

size of the various categories. 
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Category 

alcohol 

amide 

amine 

benzene 

bromide 

carboxylate 

chloride 

cresol 

ether 

kerosene 

lead 

naphtha 

nitrate 

nitrite 

oil 

phenol 

phosphate 

polymer 

resin 

solvent 

toluene 

xylene 

Number of 

Components 

1042 

157 

424 

106 

12 

109 

78 

17 

244 

234 

79 

229 

60 

6 

533 

256 

41 

114 

78 

370 

171 

280 

III. Recommendations 

Category 

alcohol 

oil 

amine 

solvent 

xylene 

phenol 

ether 

kerosene 

naphtha 

toluene 

amide 

polymer 

carboxylate 

benzene 

lead 

resin 

chloride 

nitrate 

phosphate 

cresol 

bromide 

nitrite 

Number of 

Components 

1042 

533 

424 

370 

280 

256 

244 

234 

229 

171 

157 

114 

109 

106 

79 

78 

78 

60 

41 

17 

12 

6 

I recommend the following: 

1) We should seek input from Ann Arbor regarding the types of 

categories which would prove most meaningful in regards to 

the ultimate use of the data base. (Optionally, we could use 

contract help to formulate such a classification system.) 

2) A new field in the data base should be constructed so that 

chemical components can be classified as registrations are 

received. This would alleviate the problems associated with 

ambiguous naming systems and string searches. Since the data 

retrieval software on our VAX system will soon be changed, now 

is a good time to construct such a field. 

3) Additional help, possibly under contract, will be needed to 

categorize and input category data for the approximately 7,000 

compounds which have already been processed. 
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I believe that if we quickly implement a system such as this, 

we will be readily able to answer Ann Arbor's questions about the 

data as the questions are posed. If you would like any further 

explanation of this issue, please let me know. 
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Figure 1. Additive Components by Category - September 1989 

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