"U.S. and European refiners are scrambling to get enough octane to make high-quality gasoline." -Autoblog

[Hermann]

A pump with E85, E15, 87, 89, and 93 ?

Five choices on one pump ?

I wonder where that pump's at.

How about one that has seven.
Casey's here has E15 88 oct, 87 oct E10, 89 oct E10, 91 oct E10, 91 oct E0, 93 oct E10, and diesel.

 

[OilSwine]

Back on topic ultra low sulfur gasoline requires processing which then makes it difficult to maintain aromatics.
Some refineries are better suited than others to handle it.
The problem in Europe is much more complicated based on the availability and price of natural gas and crude oil.

It is actually the olefins that are reduced by treating gasoline for sulfur. FCC gasoline has relatively high sulfur and is olefinic. Gasoline treaters don't operate at conditions that come anywhere near affecting aromatics.

Premium is higher now primarily because of the increase in light sweet domestic oil production that caused a large amount of straight run, low octane naphtha to be produced, which is a pretty bad gasoline blendstock. However, it is very cheap. So it takes up any excess high octane blendstocks just to be able to blend it in to regular gasoline.

It isn't price gouging since the refineries have no control over the price they get for their products. I assure you, every refinery is maximizing the production of their most profitable products.

 

[JHZR2]

Really? What is in those tabs??

The article above is kinda dumbed down the way they use the word octane.

I think some mothballs will increase octane…

 

[kschachn]

I think some mothballs will increase octane…

And is likely related to the “up to” statement on that package of booster. Naphthalene has its own octane rating and won’t affect a gasoline that already has a higher rating. Put them in 87 and you may see one thing, put them in 91 and it will do next to nothing.

 

[Zee09]

 

[kschachn]

View attachment 146260

And? It doesn't mention octane rating, the subject of this thread.

 

[Zee09]

And? It doesn't mention octane rating, the subject of this thread.

It includes the octane booster as well to a lesser degree according to the maker.

 

[grampi]

Luckily, the only vehicle I have that requires premium is a motorcycle...

 

[Thumper3]

It isn't price gouging since the refineries have no control over the price they get for their products. I assure you, every refinery is maximizing the production of their most profitable products.

Exactly. Supply and demand, when you sell less of something you have to charge more to offset costs. When gas prices spiked up many people suddenly decided the little sticker inside their filler door saying only use Premium was stupid and the gap between 91/93 sales and 87/88 sales grew even larger. As the stations order more Regular and less Premium the refineries also cut back production of what they weren't selling as much of.

Nevermind that oil is also not your normal item that is sold just as a product, it's traded as a commodity and pricing is subject to speculation investments and HEAVY manipulation by governments.


Octane tabs...........call me crazy I suppose, but I would never put a solid object in my fuel tank.

 

[grampi]

Exactly. Supply and demand, when you sell less of something you have to charge more to offset costs. When gas prices spiked up many people suddenly decided the little sticker inside their filler door saying only use Premium was stupid and the gap between 91/93 sales and 87/88 sales grew even larger. As the stations order more Regular and less Premium the refineries also cut back production of what they weren't selling as much of.

Nevermind that oil is also not your normal item that is sold just as a product, it's traded as a commodity and pricing is subject to speculation investments and HEAVY manipulation by governments.


Octane tabs...........call me crazy I suppose, but I would never put a solid object in my fuel tank.

When they sell less because they're purposely producing less, that's price manipulation...

 

[Bjornviken]

Here in europe, it appears regular (95 ron) and diesel have dropped some in price, but 98 ron dropped maybe half as much.

Diesel quality have dropped in my country, went from 60 cetane to 50 cetane. Moved to HVO diesel where its above 70 cetane

 

[Impatient]

sorry, I think they are gouging on the premium. Many MB, BMW, or Lexus drivers probably don’t care, but many of the Regular users are more price-conscious. Look up “Price elasticity“ to better understand. Premium users are less concerned with price; their buying decisions are based less on price.

 

[RDY4WAR]

I’d like to know too. But no matter what notice the packaging gives the usual “up to” on the points increase. And remember 10 points equals one on the octane rating. So it may or may not do anything at all. Considering the price and the fact that nothing is guaranteed I can’t see how this would be less expensive than buying a higher octane fuel at the pump

And I noticed the same thing in the article. I’m quite sure there is no specific octane molecule shortage as such.

On top of that, the octane reflected on those supplements is often RON which is less important to WOT knock resistance than MON. I've seen results of adding an octane booster improve RON by 1 point but lost 2 MON, making the fuel more detonation prone instead of less. Some of those additives react positively with certain gasoline components and some negatively. With pump gas composition changing often from one batch to another, it's a crap shoot which way the needle will move. This is especially true using E10, E85, or any blend of ethanol or methanol with boosters that contain TEL or MMT which is why some boosters will state not to be used with alcohol blended fuel.

A lot of octane boosters are just mostly toluene or xylene, which increases the octane rating only slightly. It also raises the distillation curve and lowers RVP slightly which isn't a problem for a boosted engine but could potentially have some throttle response lag in NA engines if used at high enough concentration.

 

[grampi]

sorry, I think they are gouging on the premium. Many MB, BMW, or Lexus drivers probably don’t care, but many of the Regular users are more price-conscious. Look up “Price elasticity“ to better understand. Premium users are less concerned with price; their buying decisions are based less on price.

They are. Nothing but profit padding. The price gap between premium and the rest doesn't need to be anywhere as huge as it is...

 

[b_b]

that's not how price and demand works. i thought fuel prices were a global market and the president didn't control them. also recession is two consecutive quarters of negative growth. inflation is caused by a increase in monetary supply chasing the same or fewer products. class dismissed.

 

[Revving2Redline]

On the road now but not very potent but smells a bit like fertilizer to me...

View attachment 145973

heck back of the day DynoTabs were mothballs in the gas tank.

 

[Revving2Redline]

I used and sold a lot of Toluene back in the day at Sherwin Williams. then I started getting a really weird smell from my car and decided I'd be better off just putting a couple gallons of non-ethanol in and not trying to completely poison my converter or the O2 sensors that it might have been fouling up. it's great for the old hot rods though