New petrol supplement

2002/06/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Kimika

Additives that help burn gasoline cleaner also generate environmental problems.

Methyl-t-butyl ether (MTBE) is rich in oxygen, is incorporated into gasoline and reduces the release of polluting gases in combustion, but is also a large pollutant of water. Therefore, chemicals strive to find and find a substitute for MTBE, dimethyl carbonate (DMC). DMC is non-toxic and seems to work better than MTBE. However, the DMC manufacturing process has been costly and dangerous to date.

Chinese chemist Yiling Tian of Tianjing University and his colleagues have found a new and clear way to produce DMC, but have not given detail to the new process. It is said that non-toxic components have been used and that the process itself has been carried out in non-hazardous conditions. Although the news has aroused hope from an environmental point of view, the feasibility of the process remains to be seen.