QandAs: Autos

What Is Gasoline?

Answer:
Gasoline is a liquid which is processed from crude oil.

It is mainly used as a fuel in internal combustion engines, but it is also used as a solvent due to its ability to dissolve paint.

Gasoline is mostly made of aliphatic hydrocarbons that are obtained by the fractional distillation of petroleum, and it is enhanced with iso-octane or the aromatic hydrocarbons toluene and benzene in order to increase its octane rating. Additives are commonly added to the fuel in order to gain additional properties, such as to turn engine performance or to reduce exhaust emissions. Some mixtures will also include ethanol in order to reduce the use of carbon-based fuel.

Before gasoline was used as a fuel for engines, it was sold in small bottles as a treatment against lice and their eggs. Gasoline is no longer used for this purpose due to the fire hazard and risk of dermatitis. In the United States, gasoline was also sold as a cleaning fluid for removing grease stains from clothes. Before gas stations were common, early motorists bought gasoline in cans to fill their tanks. In the past, gasoline was also used in kitchen ranges and for use in lighting. Gasoline is still available in its purified form (camping fuel, white gas, or Coleman fuel) for use in lanterns and portable stoves.

Gasoline is created in oil refineries. The virgin, or straight run, gasoline, will not meet the required specifications for modern engines, but it will form part of the blend. The bulk of the gasoline will consist of hydrocarbons with between four and twelve carbon atoms per molecule.

Typically, gasoline will be a mixture of paraffins (alkanes), naphthenes (cycloalkanes), and olefins (alkenes). The exact ratio of this mixture will depend on the following: the oil refinery that makes the gasoline (they do not all have the same set of processing units), the crude oil feed used by the refinery, and the grade of gasoline (particularly the octane rating).