BIKE: Secret miracle fuel additive likely to be approved by TCEQ

[Roger Baker]

[Amazing what rapid internet research you can do in a few hours with  
the help of GOOGLE. I interpret the following as more a miracle of  
Texas politics than science, myself. -- Roger]

Today the Austin Statesman on its front page announced a miraculous new  
fuel additive to diesel fuel that is claimed to reduce hydrocarbon  
emissions by 23.7 percent. The article by Kevin Carmody is apparently  
based on press releases from the Oryxe Energy International, Inc.

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/auto/epaper/editions/saturday/ 
news_148a435ff05f016a1022.html

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has now responded  
to the pleadings of an ex-EPA official and Dallas lawyer hired by  
Oryxe, Gregg Cooke, to promote the miracle additive called OR-LED  
(patent pending). According to Carmody, Texas will likely be one of the  
first states to approve the additive, thus allowing it to be blended  
into Austin area diesel fuel to meet environmental requirements in  
Texas' ozone near non-attainment areas like Austin.

According to the story, it seems that Texas diesel refiners (except  
Valero Corp.) don't want to install the refining equipment needed to  
produce a diesel fuel that burns cleanly enough to meet federal  
regulations. Therefore they have been searching for just such a miracle  
ingredient to save them a fortune in new refining capital; this secret  
ingredient could save them billions, according to similar experience in  
California.

Well, actually the TCEQ did not actually test the fuel additive  
themselves, but it was tested by a "nationally renowned" West Virginia  
University lab in Morgantown, which doesn't think it is very toxic.  
Although the identity of the fuel additive is still a secret it is  
known to be derived from a biological source from the following  
account:

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0CYH/is_8_7/ai_100959169

  What Carmody did not mention in his story is that the miracle  
ingredient is not a stand-alone additive, but a helper ingredient for  
an additive known as 2EHN. or 2-Ethylhexyl nitrate, an organic oxidizer  
often used to improve the diesel cetane rating by helping the diesel  
fuel to ignite more easily. However the miracle bio-helper additive  
does not work for all diesel fuels:

"...In a presentation to Hart World Fuels Conference here, company  
president Frederick Jordan explained that the hydrocarbon  
additive--sourced from plant materials, and containing no metals nor  
nitrogen---could allow refiners to boost cetane with much lower treat  
rates of 2EHN, a popular cetane additive.
* Not All Diesels Benefit
Baker Petrolite, which has an evaluation agreement with Oryxe,  
confirmed at the Hart conference here that some diesel fuels--but not  
all--do indeed show a positive, "synergistic" response to the Oryxe  
additive, when used in combination with 2EHN. So, Baker Petrolite is  
having some refiner customers evaluate the additive independently.
If these refiner test results confirm Baker Petrolite's own test  
results--and if enough different diesel fuels respond to the additive  
positively--then it's possible that Baker Petrolite could move forward  
with a commercial decision, perhaps later this year..."

Will Oryxe's miracle ingredient, OR-LED, actually help clean up  
Austin's air? It may be a miracle helper ingredient for 2EHN, but the  
test methods are pretty controversial within the diesel fuel industry  
as the following account indicates. It all depends on who does the  
testing, and exactly which diesel is being tested:

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0CYH/is_1_6/ai_82006244

  "...In Amalgamated's report on the survey results, it cites a chart  
claiming to be the "only industry-accepted 'response data curve' for  
predicting the engine cetane number change" with 2-ethyl-hexyl-nitrate  
(2EHN), a very common cetane additive. However, this claim is disputed  
by other cetane manufacturers and blenders who cite several, similar  
cetane response curves published in peer-reviewed technical journals.

  Assuming that this presumably standard cetane response chart is  
accurate, then it should be simple to calculate the pounds per thousand  
barrels (ptb) additive rate for 2EHN, Amalgamated says.  
"High-responding fuels" would required only about one-quarter the 2EHN  
for "low responding fuels," the Amalgamated report says.

  Amalgamated's survey and test reports claim to confirm these  
expectations. The resulting tests, performed at SwRI, supposedly show  
that only Amalgamated met advertised cetane boosts. But only one base  
fuel was used in Amalgamated's test.

  Of possibly greater importance, several competitors told us, is that  
Amalgamated shows no chain-of-custody proof for the products tested,  
gives names of products that at least two competitors told us don't  
exist, or in some cases fail to state accurately what the companies  
themselves claim for their products.

  Competitors also take issue with numerous statements, such as  
Amalgamated's claim that 2EHN is the "only universally accepted  
chemical additive available for increasing engine cetane number (diesel  
fuels and fuel oils)," or that "a single manufacturer in Europe  
produces the majority of this chemical product for all world markets."

  In fact, 2EHN has more than one major producer and has several  
competitors, including di-tert-butyl peroxide (DTBP), iso-octyl  
nitrate, di-nitro propane and iso amyl nitrate, Octel-Starreon  
(marketer of DTBP) says..."



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