US1891093A - Artificially colored motor fuel - Google Patents

Description

Patented Dec. 13, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE JULIUS HYMAN, OI CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGN'OR TO THE PURE OIL COMPANY, OF

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF OHIO ARTIFICIALLY COLORED MOTOR FUEL No Drawing.

The present invention relates broadly to hydrocarbon fuels for internal combustion object of the present invention to provide an artificially colored motor fuel wherein provi-. sion is made for causing the fuel to retain its desired appearance or color values for extended periods of time.

There is in common practice at present among refineries and distributors of gasoline the use of oil soluble coloring materials, such as aniline dyes, as ingredientsin some of the gasolines or motor fuels now obtainable on the market. Usually, such colors have as their purpose the identification of the gasoline in question.

Due to differences in coloring power, some colors or dyes are more advantageously used than others. Substantially all oil colors or dyes, however,-lose their coloring power to a greater or lesser extent upon exposure in solution, and, generally, this decrease in coloring power is known as bleaching. For'example, sunlight appears to be the most active of the natural bleaching catalysts or agents, although materials present in the atmosphere, such as ozone, are believed to exert similar, although not so pronounced, effects.

I have found that certain materials, added to the gasoline or other motor fuel spirit, will retard the bleaching of oil soluble colors 5 to a greater or less degree, depending on the nature and relative amounts present of the anti-bleach and dye, the nature of the motor spirit and the intensity of the bleaching catalyst. I have found further, that these anti-bleaches or color stabilizing agents are the same materials which will reduce the activity of organic per-acids, either by reduction to the normal acid or by salt formation.

Among the anti-bleach materials above described are, on the one hand, reducing compounds such as ca-techol and many other hydroxyand amino-derivatives of benzol and, on the other hand, ammonia and its derivatives. Inasmuch as only small amounts of these materials need be added to the motor Application filed September 25, 1929. Serial No. 395,198.

fuel for complete effectiveness, the additional cost is very slight and marked advantages obtained, especially where the motor fuel or gasoline is exposed to light and air in, for example, the measuring cylinders of filling station or garage pumps.

As the amount of anti-bleach material used will be determined largely by its cost and solubility, it is not considered necessary or advisable to place herein any specific limitations on the amount of the material to be used, nor is the invention limited in its scope to the specific anti-bleach materials above mentioned, since the invention includes within its purview the employment of any materials which reduce the activity of organic per-acids and any desired proportion of the materials to the li uids under treatment to obtain the ends speci ed.

Having thus described this invention, what I claim is:

1. A fuel composed essentially of volatile hydrocarbons for use in internal combustion engines containing a soluble coloring matter normally tending to lose its coloring power under conditions of storage and an anti-agent tending to stabilize such color deterioration.

2. The method of stabilizing the characteristics of artificially colored hydrocarbon motor fuel oils of the type containing soluble coloring matter and which tend to deteriorate in color upon exposure to light and air, which comprises adding thereto prior to such deterioration a small proportion of a hydroxyaromatic compound sufiicient to reduce the activity of organic per-acids present in said oil'and inhibit loss of the desired color there- 0 3. The process of inhibiting. loss of color in artificially dyed gasolines containing soluble unstable coloring compounds normally tending to fade upon storage, which comprises mixing therewith and dissolving therein a hydroxy-aromatic compound in suflicient quantities to substantially inhibit bleaching.

or loss of desired color of the gasoline.

' 4. A gasoline for use in internal combustion engines, said gasoline having a non-antioxidant coloring substance therein, said coloring substance being unstable and an anti-oxidant hydroxy-benzol in sufficient amount to stabilize said coloring substance.

5. A fuel composed essentially of volatile hydrocarbons for use in internal combustion engines containing a soluble coloring matter normally tending to fade upon storage and a color stabilizing agent comprising catechol.

6. A fuel composed essentially of volatile hydrocarbons for use in internal combustion engines containing a soluble coloring matter normally tending to fade upon storage and a color stabilizing agent composed of amino derivatives.

7. A gasoline for use in internal combustion engines, said gasoline having a non-antioxidant coloring substance therein, said coloring substance being unstable and an antioxidant amino-benzol in sufiicient amount to stabilize" said coloring substance.

8. A fuel composed essentially of Volatile hydrodarbons for use in internal combustion engines containing a soluble coloring matter normally tending to fade upon storage and a color stabilizing agent comprising ammonia.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

JULIUS HYMAN.