What are Fuel Ethers?
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are almost entirely used as blending components for gasoline, where their combination of high octane and oxygen content facilitate the preparation of high-peformance, cleaner burning fuels and biofuels.
Fuel ethers are clear, colourless to pale yellow liquid organic compounds with a distinctive turpentine-like odour. They contain oxygen in a chain of carbon and hydrogen atoms. Each oxygen atom is linked to two carbon atoms, forming a carbon-oxygen-carbon sequence. This is different to alcohols where each oxygen atom is linked to a carbon atom and a hydrogen atom, forming a carbon-oxygen-hydrogen sequence.
The biofuel Ethyl-tertiary-butyl-ether, or ETBE, is the most commonly used fuel ether in Europe, followed by methyl-tertiary-butyl-ether, or MTBE, then tertiary-amyl-methyl-ether, or TAME, and finally tertiary-amyl-ethyl-ether, or TAEE.
Molecular structures of Fuel Ethers
Fuel ether properties: the key physical and chemical properties of MTBE, ETBE, TAME and TAEE
|
Properties |
Conditions |
Units |
MTBE |
ETBE |
TAME |
TAEE |
|
CAS Number |
|
|
1634-04-4 |
637-92-3 |
994-05-8 |
919-94-8 |
|
Molecular Wt. |
|
g/mol |
88.2 |
102.2 |
102.2 |
116.2 |
|
Boiling Point |
|
°C |
55.3 |
73.1 |
86.3 |
101 |
|
Oxygen Content |
|
% wt. |
18.2 |
15.7 |
15.7 |
13.8 |
|
Research Octane Number |
ISO5164 |
|
118 |
119 |
112 |
112 |
|
Motor Octane Number |
ISO5163 |
|
101 |
103 |
98 |
98 |
|
Vapour Pressure |
EN13016/1 |
kPa |
55 |
28 |
17.2 |
6.9 |
|
Water Solubility |
20°C |
g/l |
42 |
16.4 |
11 |
4 |
|
Log Pow |
|
|
1.06 |
1.48 |
1.55 |
- |
|
Odour Detection in Water |
|
µg/l |
15 |
49 |
194 |
- |
|
Taste Detection in Water |
|
µg/l |
40 |
47 |
128 |
- |
|
Henry's Law Constant |
25°C |
Pa.m3/mol |
53.5 |
166 |
111 |
- |