Classifications

• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C10—PETROLEUM, GAS OR COKE INDUSTRIES; TECHNICAL GASES CONTAINING CARBON MONOXIDE; FUELS; LUBRICANTS; PEAT
  • C10L—FUELS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; NATURAL GAS; SYNTHETIC NATURAL GAS OBTAINED BY PROCESSES NOT COVERED BY SUBCLASSES C10G, C10K; LIQUEFIED PETROLEUM GAS; ADDING MATERIALS TO FUELS OR FIRES TO REDUCE SMOKE OR UNDESIRABLE DEPOSITS OR TO FACILITATE SOOT REMOVAL; FIRELIGHTERS
  • C10L1/00—Liquid carbonaceous fuels
  • C10L1/10—Liquid carbonaceous fuels containing additives
  • C10L1/14—Organic compounds
  • C10L1/18—Organic compounds containing oxygen
  • C10L1/19—Esters ester radical containing compounds; ester ethers; carbonic acid esters
  • C10L1/191—Esters ester radical containing compounds; ester ethers; carbonic acid esters of di- or polyhydroxyalcohols

Definitions

• This invention relates to a method for reduc­ing the fuel consumption of an internal combustion engine.
• Patent 4,304,678 the esters of dimer acids and monohydric alcohol disclosed in U.S. Patent 4,167,486, the esters of glycerol and monocarboxylic fatty acids as disclosed in U.K. 2,038,355 and 2,038,356 and esters of monocarboxylic fatty acids and polyhydric alcohols disclosed in U.S. Patent 3,933,659.
• molybdenum containing compounds including insoluble molybdenum sulfides, organo molybdenum complexes, e.g., molybdenum amine complexes disclosed in U.S. Patent 4,164,473, molybdenum thio-bis phenol complexes dis­closed in U.S. Patents 4,192,753, 4,201,683 and 4,248,720, molybdenum oxazoline complexes disclosed in U.S. Patent 4,176,074 and molydenum lactone oxazoline complexes disclosed in U.S. Patent 4,176,073.
• a petroleum hydrocarbon fuel which contains a major amount of gasoline, preferably un­leaded gasoline, and an effective amount of a selected additive which is an ester of a monocarboxylic acid and a polyhydric alcohol, said ester additive having at least one free hydroxyl group.
• this invention relates to a method of reducing the fuel consumption of an auto­motive internal combustion engine which comprises operating said engine on a hydrocarbon fuel containing a major amount of a liquid hydrocarbon of the gasoline boiling range and from about 0.001 to about 2% by weight, based on the total weight of the fuel, of an additive which is an ester of a monocarboxylic acid and a glycol or trihydric alcohol, said acid having about 12 to about 30 carbon atoms, said glycol being an alkane diol or oxa-alkane diol wherein said alkane is a straight chain hydrocarbon of about 2 to about 5 carbon atoms and said trihydric alcohol has a straight chain hydrocarbon structure of about 3 to about 6 carbon atoms, said ester additive having at least one free hydroxyl group, whereby said fuel including the ester additive effectively reaches the upper cylinder of said engine and thereby reduces the fuel consumed in the operation thereof.
• an additive which is an ester of a monocarboxylic acid and a glyco
• the present invention involves a method to improve the fuel economy of motor vehicles using an internal combustion engine wherein said engine is operated with a petroleum fuel containing a selected hydroxyl containing carboxylic acid ester additive.
• the ester additive used in the method of this invention is generally derived from the esterifi­cation of a monocarboxylic acid and glycol or trihydric alcohol, said ester having at least one free hydroxyl group. More particularly, the ester additive used in this invention is a hydroxyl containing ester of a monocarboxylic acid and a glycol or trihydric alcohol, said acid having about 12 to 30 carbon atoms, said glycol being an alkane diol or oxa-alkane diol wherein said alkane is a straight chain hydrocarbon of about 2 to about 5 carbon atoms and said trihydric alcohol has a straight chain hydrocarbon structure of about 3 to about 6 carbon atoms.
• the acid used in preparing the ester is an aliphatic, saturated or unsaturated, straight chained or branched monocarboxylic acid having about 12 to about 30, preferably about 14 to about 28, and more preferably about 16 to about 22 carbon atoms.
• the alcohol used in preparing the ester additive of this invention is generally a saturated, straight chain, aliphatic, dihydric or trihydric alcohol. More particularly, the alcohol will be a glycol or diol, or a trihydric alcohol with said glycol being an alkane diol, i.e., alkylene glycol or oxa-­alkane diol, i.e., polyalkylene glycol wherein said alkane is a straight chain hydrocarbon of about 2 to about 5 carbon atoms and said trihydric alcohol has a linear or straight chain hydrocarbon structure of about 3 to about 6 carbon atoms.
• alkane diol i.e., alkylene glycol or oxa-­alkane diol
• said alkane is a straight chain hydrocarbon of about 2 to about 5 carbon atoms
• said trihydric alcohol has a linear or straight chain hydrocarbon structure of about 3 to about 6 carbon atoms.
• the oxa-alkane diol (poly­alkylene glycol) will contain periodically repeating groups of the formula: where R is the alkane derivative defined above, i.e., a straight chain hydrocarbon of about 2 to about 5 carbon atoms with x being 2 to 100, more preferably 2 to 25.
• R is the alkane derivative defined above, i.e., a straight chain hydrocarbon of about 2 to about 5 carbon atoms with x being 2 to 100, more preferably 2 to 25.
• the alkane in said alkane diol or oxa-alkane diol will have about 2 to about 3 carbon atoms with ethylene glycol being the preferred alkane diol or alkylene glycol and diethylene glycol being the pre­ferred oxa-alkane diol or polyalkylene glycol.
• the trihydric alcohol will contain about 3 to about 4 carbon atoms with glycerol being the preferred compound.
• Other compounds of this type which may be used in this invention are 1, 2, 6 trihydroxyhexane and 2, 2 ⁇ , 2 ⁇ nitrilotriethanol.
• the hydroxy-substituted ester additives used in this invention can be prepared by a variety of methods well known in the art. Such esters may be prepared from any of the acids and alcohols, as de­scribed above, and mixtures thereof. Preferably, the esters will be prepared from acids having about 14 to about 28 carbon atoms and trihydric alcohols. More preferably, the esters will be prepared from acids having about 16 to about 22 carbon atoms and glycerol. When using trihydric alcohols and particularly glycerol, some mono- and some diesters may be found in the ester mixture. Small minor amounts of triester may be present in the ester component, particularly in commercially available products, however, the ester additive will substantially comprise compounds having at least one free hydroxyl group.
• the ester additive used in this invention must be suitably soluble and compatible with the system, not provide any corrosion problems and, most important, must effectively reach remote areas of the automotive engine including the upper cylinder area to provide fuel economy benefits.
• the fuel composition used in the method of this invention is generally a petroleum hydrocarbon fuel useful as a fuel or gasoline for internal combus­tion engines.
• Such fuels typically comprise mixtures of hydrocarbons of various types, including straight and branched chain paraffins, olefins, aromatics and naphthenic hydrocarbons.
• These compositions are pro­vided in a number of grades, such as leaded and un­leaded gasoline, and are typically derived from petroleum crude oil by conventional refining and blending processes such as straight run distillation, thermal cracking, hydrocracking, catalytic cracking and various reforming processes.
• Gasoline is defined as a mixture of liquid hydrocarbons or hydrocarbon-­oxygenates having an initial boiling point in the range of about 70 to 135°F and a final boiling point in the range of about 250 to 450°F, as determined by the ASTM D86 distillation method.
• the method of this invention will comprise the use of a petroleum hydrocarbon fuel or gasoline which contains an effective fuel reducing amount of the selected hydroxyl-containing ester of monocarboxylic acid and dihydric or trihydric alcohol. More particularly, the gasoline fuel will contain from about 0.001 to about 2% by weight of the ester additive and preferably from about 0.01 to about 1% by weight.
• the ester additive used in this invention has been found effective in reducing friction in un­leaded gasoline, i.e. gasoline which does not contain any lead compounds, such as tetraethyl lead and/or tetramethyl lead.
• unleaded gasoline also normally does not contain any lead scavengers, which typically comprise alkyl halides.
• additives conventionally used in petroleum hydrocarbon fuels or gasoline may be included in the fuel used in the method of this invention, such as antioxidants, detergents, corrosion inhibitors, etc.
• Fuel economy was measured using a Chevrolet 4.1 litre inline-6 engine on a dynamometer test stand with two different fuels, a standard reference unleaded gasoline and a test unleaded gasoline which was the same but contained 0.02 wt. % of an ester additive.
• the ester additive was a mixture formed by the esterifica­tion of glycerol and oleic acid and comprised glycerol mono-oleate (55% by wt.) and glycerol di-oleate (45%).
• the unleaded fuels were run in the engine over two different time periods, i.e., 0.5 and 99 hours, and for four different load/cycle conditions.
• the resulting fuel consumption for the 0.5 hour test was found to be 3.7, 1.7, 1.5 and 0.8% lower for the respective load/cycle conditions, for the fuel containing the ester additive than for the reference fuel without additive.
• the average weighted or global fuel consumption (i.e., based on fuel consumed for each load/cycle condition) was 1.5% lower for the ester additive containing unleaded fuel than the reference unleaded fuel without additive.
• the resulting fuel consumption for the 99 hour test was 4.2, 2.9, 0.9, and 2.0% lower, for the respective load/cycle conditions, for the unleaded fuel containing ester additive than for the reference un­leaded fuel without additive.
• the average weighted or global fuel consumption for this run was 2.2% lower for the ester additive containing unleaded fuel.

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• Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
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• Chemical Kinetics & Catalysis (AREA)
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Cited By (13)

Citations (10)

• 1986
  • 1986-09-25 EP EP86307364A patent/EP0227218A1/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 1986-09-29 JP JP22852286A patent/JPS62148595A/ja active Pending

Patent Citations (10)

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