Quote:
Originally Posted by DarkTrigger
+1
It's easy to boost the octane rating. When they do gasoline blending they just mix in higher octane fuel with lesser until they get the correct antiknock number (ie. 91). Higher octane just means that the gasoline has more branched hydrocarbon molecules which burn more efficiently. It's all pretty much C7-C11 hydrocarbons though and blended with branched isomers to act more like pure iso-octane. These cars are now advanced enough to just re-adjust the air/fuel ratio to prevent any knocking (premature ignition due to unbranched molecules).
I'm a chemical engineer who used to work at an oil refinery. Also, just to clear up one last misconception. All the fuel brands are the same, Chevron, 76, Connoco, etc, use the same gasoline from the same refineries. They just dump in their additives (special trade secret detergents) into the stream when they load up the gas into the tanker trucks.
Hope this helps.
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you mean shell, exxon and bp aren't better than the rest?