WWII Octane...Interesting Read

[larryd]

It has always been puzzled as to why the German Luftwaffe kept on using 87 Octane Aviation Gasoline while the Americans and British used 100 Octane Gasoline in their Spitfire Fighters and Americans used 130 Octane in our P-51 and other fighters. This is the reason:

This is a declassified article by the British Society of Chemists

(Declassified in 2014)

It seems that the German and British aircraft both used 87 Octane Gasoline in the first two years of the war. While that was fairly satisfactory in the German Daimler-Benz V-12 engine, It was marginal in the British Rolls-Royce Merlin XX engine in British aircraft. It fouled the spark-plugs, caused valves to stick, And made frequent engine repair problems.

Then came lend- lease and American aircraft began to enter British service in great numbers. If British engines hated 87 Octane gasoline,American, General Motors Built, Allison 1710 engines loathed and despised it. Something had to be done!

Along came an American named Tim Palucka, a chemist for Sun Oil in their South East Texas Refinery. Never heard of him? Small wonder,very few people have. He took a French formula for enhancing the octane of Gasoline, and invented the "Cracking Tower" and produced 100 octane aviation Gasoline. This discovery led to great joy among our EnglishCousins and great distress among the Germans.

A Spitfire fueled with 100 Octane gasoline was 34 miles per hour faster at 10,000 feet. The need to replace engines went from every 500 hours of operation to every 1,000 hours. Which reduced the cost of British aircraft by 300 Pounds Sterling. Even more, when used in 4 engine bombers. The Germans couldn't believe it when Spitfires that couldn't catch them a year ago started shooting their ME-109 E and G models right out of the sky

Of course, the matter had to be kept secret. If the Germans found out that it was a French Invention, They'd simply copy the original French patents.

If any of you have ever wondered what they were doing in that 3 story white brick building in front of the Sun Oil Refinery on Old Highway 90, that was it. They were re-inventing gasoline.

The American Allison engines improved remarkably with 100 Octane gasoline, but did much better when 130 octane gasoline came along in 1944. The 130 Octane also improved the Radial Engine Bombers we produced.

The Germans and Japanese never snapped to the fact that we had re-invented gasoline. Neither did our "Friends" the Russians.

100,000 Americans died in the skies over Europe. Lord only knows what that number would have been without "Super-Gasoline".

And it all was invented just a few miles west of Beaumont, and we never knew a thing about it.

[RICZ]

Thanks for that interesting read about something I never gave a thought to previously.
Over 405,000 GIs never got to return home alive. May they rest in peace.

[Joe T.]

Humm,

Cracking, in petroleum refining, the process by which heavy hydrocarbon molecules are broken up into lighter molecules by means of heat and usually pressure and sometimes catalysts. Cracking is the most important process for the commercial production of gasoline and diesel fuel.

Cracking of petroleum yields light oils (corresponding to gasoline), middle-range oils used in diesel fuel, residual heavy oils, a solid carbonaceous product known as coke, and such gases as methane, ethane, ethylene, propane, propylene, and butylene. Depending on the end product, the oils can go directly into fuel blending, or they can be routed through further cracking reactions or other refining processes until they have produced oils of the desired weight. The gases can be used in the refinery’s fuel system, but they are also important raw materials for petrochemical plants, where they are made into a large number of end products, ranging from synthetic rubber and plastic to agricultural chemicals.

The first thermal cracking process for breaking up large nonvolatile hydrocarbons into gasoline came into use in 1913; it was invented by William Merriam Burton, a chemist who worked for the Standard Oil Company (Indiana), which later became the Amoco Corporation. Various improvements to thermal cracking were introduced into the 1920s. Also in the 1920s, French chemist Eugène Houdry improved the cracking process with catalysts to obtain a higher-octane product. His process was introduced in 1936 by the Socony-Vacuum Oil Company (later Mobil Oil Corporation) and in 1937 by the Sun Oil Company (later Sunoco, Inc.). Catalytic cracking was itself improved in the 1940s with the use of fluidized or moving beds of powdered catalyst. During the 1950s, as demand for automobile and jet fuel increased, hydrocracking was applied to petroleum refining. This process employs hydrogen gas to improve the hydrogen-carbon ratio in the cracked molecules and to arrive at a broader range of end products, such as gasoline, kerosene (used in jet fuel), and diesel fuel. Modern low-temperature hydrocracking was put into commercial production in 1963 by the Standard Oil Company of California (later the Chevron Corporation).

[Grandpot]

It takes brave servicemen and women on the front lines to win a war. Behind the lines it also takes innovative and dedicated industries to supply the front lines. Together, they are the team.

[Mikey]

Humm,

Cracking, in petroleum refining, the process by which heavy hydrocarbon molecules are broken up into lighter molecules by means of heat and usually pressure and sometimes catalysts. Cracking is the most important process for the commercial production of gasoline and diesel fuel.

Cracking of petroleum yields light oils (corresponding to gasoline), middle-range oils used in diesel fuel, residual heavy oils, a solid carbonaceous product known as coke, and such gases as methane, ethane, ethylene, propane, propylene, and butylene. Depending on the end product, the oils can go directly into fuel blending, or they can be routed through further cracking reactions or other refining processes until they have produced oils of the desired weight. The gases can be used in the refinery’s fuel system, but they are also important raw materials for petrochemical plants, where they are made into a large number of end products, ranging from synthetic rubber and plastic to agricultural chemicals.

The first thermal cracking process for breaking up large nonvolatile hydrocarbons into gasoline came into use in 1913; it was invented by William Merriam Burton, a chemist who worked for the Standard Oil Company (Indiana), which later became the Amoco Corporation. Various improvements to thermal cracking were introduced into the 1920s. Also in the 1920s, French chemist Eugène Houdry improved the cracking process with catalysts to obtain a higher-octane product. His process was introduced in 1936 by the Socony-Vacuum Oil Company (later Mobil Oil Corporation) and in 1937 by the Sun Oil Company (later Sunoco, Inc.). Catalytic cracking was itself improved in the 1940s with the use of fluidized or moving beds of powdered catalyst. During the 1950s, as demand for automobile and jet fuel increased, hydrocracking was applied to petroleum refining. This process employs hydrogen gas to improve the hydrogen-carbon ratio in the cracked molecules and to arrive at a broader range of end products, such as gasoline, kerosene (used in jet fuel), and diesel fuel. Modern low-temperature hydrocracking was put into commercial production in 1963 by the Standard Oil Company of California (later the Chevron Corporation).

I know back in the 60's if we wanted to have a little fun we would hit the airport and get a little gas and go play, man didn't it smell good!!!!