Studies on Oxygenated Fuel Additives: Ethers and Acetals

Ever increasing political pressure for a cleaner environment has triggered large research efforts over the past decade within the automobile and solvent industries to develop new, oxygenated, low atmospheric reactivity fuels and solvents, respectively. The main stimulus for the interest in such compounds in Europe is existing or pending legislation demanding the regulation of the reactivity of the anthropogenic VOC emissions to the atmosphere, in particular from solvents and motorised vehicles. Obviously to assess the environmental acceptability of alternative oxygenated solvents or fuel additives a comprehensive understanding of their gas-phase oxidation mechanism is required, preferably prior to deployment of the compounds.