The Wilmington morning star., 1944-01-12
High Octane Gas
BY HERMAN R. ALLEN

AA1AsM1A4N N. ALLEN
WASHINGTON-Whe the shooting is over
it is not unlikely that a big share of the vic.
tory credit will go to something about which
so little is known that it's almost "secret
weapon
1t is 1OO-octane gasoline.
Some idea of the potent part this high.
powered motor fuel has played in the war
may be gained from this statement of Geof-
frey Lloyd, Great Britain's Petroleum Score.
tary: II think We wouldn't have won the
Battle of Britain without 100-octane gasoline -"
Much of that 100~octane was taken over in
tankers from the first two American refineries.
Examination Of captured German supplies
shows that the Nazis have something approx
mating 100-octane too, but petroleum experts
here do not believe Germany has sufficient
refining capacity to supply it even for all
her fighter planes-1nuch less bombers. All
Allied combat planes fly on 100-octane. 1t is
believed the Germans have designed their en-
gineS to take best advantage of the gasoline
they have (much of it is made from coaD
but general performance of their motors does
not come up to ours.
Just what is 1OO-octane gasoline?
During experimentation on high-poWer, no.
knock fuels, DR.. Graham Edgar, Detroit
chemist, discovered that one of the substances
in petroleum, called iso-octane could be used
a fuel itself and would not knock in the
higheSt-compreSSion motors then in existence
He also discovered that another component Of
petroleum, normal heptane, would knock I'm
der almost any conditions when used alone
as a fuel.
So he and his helpers set up scale or
which ZPrO-OPt9Oa rPpreSRntpd hentaOe
and 100-octane pure iso-octane. A fuel of Is
octane rating would be one with characters
tics similar to a mixture of IS per cent iso
octane and Is per cent heptane.
But iso-octane cost about $50 gallon-toe
much for practical use-so DR.. Edgar contn
ued trying to raise ordinary fuel to iso-octane
standard.
He had begun his efforts in 1918. Automo
tive engineers were trying to increase the
power of engines by COMPRISING the air
caroline mixture into small cylinder heac
space, but they found that the gasoline Of
that day would knock" causing the engine
to overhead and lose power.
In 1922 after countless experiments, DR.
Edgar discovered that the addition of min
Ute quantity of tetraethyl lead to gasoline
made from selected crude oils would raise
that gasoline to 87-octane. However the proc
ess worked only up to that point adding still
more ethyl fluid' didn't have enough more
effect to be worth while.
Then scientists founc that the higher the
base stock octane rating the higher the
rating would be when the lead compound was
added. The problem thus switched to one O.
raising the base stock rating. This was &C
complished by experiments which resulted ir
producing iso-butane at much lower price
by the hydrogenation'' process, which was
imported, incidentally, from Germany.
By 1884, l00-octane gasoline was being made
by adding so-octane to highest gas, ther
adding tetraethyl Actually the new fuel wa.
too potent for the highest-compresson avia
ton engine then in existence, but engine de
sgners soon caught up with it and in 1893:
the Army ordered 100000 gallons and late]
| l 900 600 gallons-at about So a gallon The
price is now down to less than IS cents
In 1910 American refinerieS We're turnins
out 10000 barrels of 100-octane day Wher
the Japs struck Pearl Harbor they were max
ing &c, 900 barrels day. Overnight it became
necessary to expand production to almost in
conceivable volume. Petroleum technician,
came to bat with new processes (manv O
them still secret, built new refineries "ou
of a hat and-perhaps most startling of all
found out how to get 40 gallons of 1OO-octane
out of every barrel of crude oil where before
they had lsssn getting only 21-100 of gallon
| Exact production figures are kept dark. bu
it can be said that the output is now more
than four times what it was Dec. r 1e41
and that within a few months it will be egh
times greaser