4.4 What are the hydrocarbons in gasoline?
Description
This article is from the Gasoline FAQ, by Bruce Hamilton with numerous contributions by others.
4.4 What are the hydrocarbons in gasoline?
Hydrocarbons ( HCs ) are any molecules that just contain hydrogen and
carbon, both of which are fuel molecules that can be burnt ( oxidised )
to form water ( H2O ) or carbon dioxide ( CO2 ). If the combustion is
not complete, carbon monoxide ( CO ) may be formed. As CO can be burnt
to produce CO2, it is also a fuel.
The way the hydrogen and carbons hold hands determines which hydrocarbon
family they belong to. If they only hold one hand they are called
"saturated hydrocarbons" because they can not absorb additional hydrogen.
If the carbons hold two hands they are called "unsaturated hydrocarbons"
because they can be converted into "saturated hydrocarbons" by the
addition of hydrogen to the double bond. Hydrogens are omitted from the
following, but if you remember C = 4 hands, H = 1 hand, and O = 2 hands,
you can draw the full structures of most HCs.
Gasoline contains over 500 hydrocarbons that may have between 3 to 12
carbons, and gasoline used to have a boiling range from 30C to 220C at
atmospheric pressure. The boiling range is narrowing as the initial boiling
point is increasing, and the final boiling point is decreasing, both
changes are for environmental reasons. Detailed descriptions of structures
can be found in any chemical or petroleum text discussing gasolines [14].
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