This work discusses the impact of a novel discovery of “octane hyperboosting” by a potential biofuel target 3-methyl-2-buten-1-ol (prenol). Octane hyperboosting is characterized by the Research Octane Number (RON) of a mixture exceeding the RON of the individual components in that mixture. This effect has not been documented to date and the phenomenon suggests an unexplored aspect of autoignition kinetics research for fuel blends which and may provide a new mechanism for significantly increasing fuel octane number. This is necessary for increasing combustion efficiency in spark ignition engines and recent efforts from the DOE’s co-optimization of fuels and engines project have demonstrated that a 30% v/v blend of prenol in gasoline blends will lead to &gt;10% better efficiency (and thereby lower CO2 emissions) in existing SI engines due to prenols octane hyperboosting. This suggests a paradigm shift for the biofuel industry where this effect is leveraged by biorefiners, as increasing the octane number at low blend volumes can cut costs in other parts of the refinery. Other key factors in value proposition of prenol has a high performance biofuel such as vapor pressure, energy density, infrastructure compatibility, and emissions are also discussed. Lastly, results from a survey of other biofuel molecules that may leverage this effect are highlighted.<br/>

Biorefining impacts of novel octane hyperboosting phenomenon in prenol/gasoline blends

2019 Fall National Meeting

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