Gasoline
Petroleum refineries produce a variety of components that are then used to blend refined products. Product blending is a critical source of flexibility and profitability for refining operations. Of great interest is the economic blending of gasoline.
Gasoline is not a single product. Refiners blend hundreds of different specifications. In addition to the different grades of gasoline we all see at the retail pump, gasoline is subject to different specifications based on country, geographic location, season, humidity, altitude, and environmental regulations. This further complicates distribution systems with additional requirements for low sulfur, conventional, reformulated and oxygenated "boutique" blends.
Key to good gasoline performance is octane, vapor pressure (Reid Vapor Pressure - RVP) and distillation range of the blend. Below is a table of octane, RVP and specific gravity blending values for some typical gasoline blending components:
Component |
RVP |
MON |
RON |
Gravity, ˚API |
Iso-butane |
71.0 |
92.0 |
93.0 |
120.0 |
n-butane |
52.0 |
92.0 |
93.0 |
111.0 |
Iso-pentane |
19.4 |
90.8 |
93.2 |
95.0 |
n-pentane |
14.7 |
87.2 |
71.5 |
88.9 |
Iso-hexane |
6.4 |
78.4 |
79.2 |
76.5 |
LSR |
11.1 |
61.6 |
66.4 |
78.6 |
Isomerate |
13.5 |
81.1 |
83.0 |
80.4 |
Hydrocrackate |
1.7 |
75.6 |
79.0 |
55.5 |
Coker Naphtha |
3.6 |
- |
67.2 |
57.2 |
FCC Gasoline |
4.4 |
76.8 |
92.3 |
57.2 |
Reformate, 94 RON |
2.8 |
84.4 |
94.0 |
45.8 |
Reformate, 100 RON |
4.2 |
88.2 |
100.0 |
41.2 |
Alkylate, C4 |
4.6 |
95.9 |
97.3 |
70.3 |
Alkylate, C5 |
1.0 |
88.88 |
89.7 |
- |
