The Recent Development in Gasoline Upgrading Additives (Octane Boosters)

Gasoline is one of the essential propulsion fuels used for motor cars. Specified characteristics are essential for the product application. Octane grade is one of the essential characteristics of gasoline. Gasoline commonly contains additives to prevent knocking in the combustion chamber; these additives rated as an octane number to indicate gasoline quality grades. Enhancing octane numbers was the goal of the fuel industry for the last several decades. Bosting octane of gasoline is either: (i) by varying the composition via increasing the aromatic content, branched hydrocarbons, unsaturated hydrocarbons, and their combination. (ii) Another trend for upgrading the octane number is by using additives. This paper represents a review on the gasoline upgrading by using octane booster additives for 2010-2020 sourced from a literature survey of patents, publications, books, and conferences. The review covers recent development in octane boosting additives obtained from sustainable and environmentally friendly additives to replace highly polluting organometallic carbonyl compounds, including tetraethyl lead. This review finding highlights the development of new types of octane boosting additives based on oxygenated organic hydrocarbons such as alcohols, esters, ethers, acetals, and other derivatives, mainly those obtained from natural resources such as cellulose, lignin, sugars, and plant/ animal oils. The review also covers the publications on environmental safety and economic aspects.