Higher Octane Could Solve All of Our Problems

by Aaron Cole

Updated: December 31st, 2020

Speaking at a conference this week, EPA exec Christopher Grundler said automakers have asked for higher octane fuels for higher compression tolerance and more powerful engines, Automotive News is reporting.

Speaking at the CAR Management Briefing Seminar series, Grundler said the EPA has the authority to regulate fuel, but that the agency would investigate whether it would make sense to offer the higher-grade fuel. Grundler is the agency’s director of the Office of Transportation and Air Quality.

(Note to Grundler: You seem like a smart guy. Why can’t we all have race fuel all the time?)

Drivers would have to pay more at the pump, Grundler said, which would make regulating higher octane fuel more difficult to swallow.

However, as more manufacturers turn to turbocharging smaller displacement engines with higher compression ratios, the engines themselves could become more powerful and applicable to a larger range and car size. But will they last?

For example, Mercedes Benz’s 2-liter, turbocharged engine produces 177.5 hp/l, a figure that was almost unheard of in mass-produced passenger cars 20 years ago. The fleet averages though, still hover around 100 hp/l.

Grundler said the EPA would investigate whether higher-octane fuels, or something probably not as exciting, would help manufacturers continue to build bigger, heavier, safer cars, but with more efficient, smaller, fuel-sipping engines.

#ChristopherGrundler #EPA #FuelEfficiency #Gasoline #Octane #Turbocharging

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13 of 124 comments

Skor on Aug 08, 2015

'But will it last?' This is the $64K question. I remember when turbos were all the rage back in the 80s and early 90s.....until they started grenading all over the place.

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- 28-Cars-Later on Aug 08, 2015
  
  This time its different /sarc.
  
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Big Al from Oz on Aug 09, 2015

The best possible fuel to use in larger vehicles and to maintain the ever increasing demands on FE is diesel. As the we (and Hollande/French) have found out GDI engines are larger polluters than the current modern EuroV diesels. Anyway, why do you want to use corn??? Use the corn as god intended ....... food for humans and livestock. Gradually wind back the subsidised corn industry and let them operate as true free enterprise businesses. This will save tax dollars and those saved tax dollar can repair and improve the road infrastructure. This will have an economic flow on as well. I do realise there are my protagonists who can't see the forest through the trees. The modern diesel engine is nothing like the diesel of old. They are clean, loaded with torque and horsepower. Even in a Ram that weighs over 5 000lbs the VM diesel will accelerate the pickup to 60 from a standstill in the 8 second bracket. As Mark Gasnier also pointed out he was returning up to 30mpg on the highway. All that is needed is an equitable set of regulations controlling diesel powered vehicles. Yes there are some fantastic diesel engines out there, that will provide great performance. The link below has an article on the 3 litre BMW inline 6 diesel with 381hp and 740Nm of torque. It propels a 550 to 62mph in 4.9 seconds and returns an FE figure of over 44mpg. http://www.gizmag.com/bmw-adds-four-triple-turbo-diesel-performance-m-cars/21227/ New Cayenne S Diesel has a big 4.2-litre V8 turbo-diesel with 283 kW and a huge 850 Nm of torque. Its measured acceleration from zero to 100 km/h is just 5.4 seconds – from a diesel SUV. The FE is in the mid 30s, that is in a vehicle that weighs around the same a 1/2 ton pickup. http://www.carsguide.com.au/car-reviews/2015-porsche-cayenne-review-30181#.Vcb6sbvn9Ms Even a paltry 3.2 litre diesel HD Transit can run 10's in 0-60 time trials and average 27mpg. And these vehicles will never win an aerodynamics award. Diesel is the answer. But the future may hold the key......compression ignition gasoline engines. That would be the best of all worlds.

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- Heavy handle on Aug 09, 2015
  
  Big Al, Unfortunately, as France has figured out, running diesels in populated areas isn't worth the cost. Every Euro "saved" at the pump is spent in health care, with more needed. Diesel makes a little bit of sense for low-density areas, like interstate runs in the US, and like all of Australia save for a half dozen urban areas. It's a non-starter anywhere the exhaust doesn't get significantly diluted.
  
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- Art Vandelay on Aug 09, 2015
  
  As corn is a crop completely engineered by man, I doubt God cares how it is.used so long as one doesn't make it part of a Pagan ritual.
  
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- DenverMike on Aug 09, 2015
  
  Gee thanks BAFO. When will we finally realize diesels are the best thing for us? Except with France moving away from their diesel disaster, isn't it the final nail in that particular coffin? If unleaded direct-injection is that horrible, wouldn't it be easier to do away with it, rather than adding all sorts of diesel-like emissions equipment? GDI doesn't provide more than a marginal improvement over normal EFI anyway. Diesels for anything other than simis and heavy equipment, has had its day. With new diesel emissions-equipment, fuel mixture, and what we know/admit it does to our health, including cancer, diesels are about done for mainstream use in light duty vehicles, sorry to say.
  
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- Big Al from Oz on Aug 09, 2015
  
  heavy handle, I do think you have it incorrect regarding France. I did post a great article that was a couple of years old here on TTAC regarding the French taxation on diesel fuel. The article stated that the French government needed money due to the GFC and they figured that diesel was the best alternative to tax. But the French figured it would be hard to justify taxing diesel. But, this also backfired, as shown when you read further on. Another article I read earlier this year also had shown that the pollutants from diesel in France was being generated by EuroIV and down diesel vehicles. If you've been to France you will notice that there are many old EuroIV and down vehicles on the road. The article also stated that the modern GDI was more polluting than the EuroV and above diesels. I don't disagree with the fact that there are diesels out there polluting. But the newer diesels are less polluting than a GDI. Also, you will notice a huge difference between pollution control equipment of EuroIV vs EuroV.
  
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Drzhivago138 on Aug 09, 2015

As the son of farmer with about 150-200 acres of corn (Which I know is not even a drop in the bucket), I have to say that it disenheartens me greatly that almost everyone here has fallen for the lies perpetrated by Big Oil. There's enough corn for livestock feed and human food additives and ethanol combined. It runs fine in modern fuel systems. And it's one of the few energy sources that's renewable. When we run out of easy-to-find gasoline, what then? I don't know, but I'm sure we'll find a way to blame the farmers. Go ahead, it's not like we help keep you alive or anything. We grow corn because it's one of the few ways to survive (forget about getting ahead--we just want to stay alive) in the industry. I extend an open invitation to anyone here to come to my family's farm, talk to a real farmer, and see how things are done in real life.

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- Darkwing on Aug 09, 2015
  
  No offense, but...whenever I hear someone tell me about "fall[ing] for the lies perpetrated by Big [Whatever]", I put my hand on my wallet.
  
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- Geozinger on Aug 09, 2015
  
  Thanks, Dr. Zhivago. I agree that we can produce plenty of corn to satisfy all of the demands placed upon it. I understand why ethanol is pushed first, but we really need to develop Butanol as a drop-in gasoline replacement...
  
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- Th009 on Aug 09, 2015
  
  There may be enough corn, but it's a fact that the ethanol subsidies (which is really what they are) have pushed up the world's corn prices, making it more difficult for many people to afford corn as food. And that's even without considering how many units of dino oil are consumed to make one unit of corn ethanol (sugar cane, cellulosic etc are a different story).
  
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- Pch101 on Aug 10, 2015
  
  @th009 Since 2002, which was a time when corn prices had been at a relative low, corn prices have increased in nominal terms (not adjusted for inflation) by 85%. Over that same period, wheat and soybean prices increased by 89% and 127%, respectively. Suddenly, the increase in the price of corn doesn't seem to be so odd, now does it? I don't think that I need to tell you that oil prices have also increased since that time. You should have noticed that commodity prices have risen generally. Given that we have a few billion more people participating in the global economy as the third world tries to get in on the game, it should not be surprising that their desire to bid for goods causes prices to go up -- demand is growing faster than supply. It's good to compare things before reaching for unsupportable conclusions.
  
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Jeff S on Aug 09, 2015

I don't see the standards of reformulated gasoline with alcohol going away. In Kentucky mandatory inspections of automobile emissions was eliminated with the agreement that reformulate gasoline would be sold during the Summer driving months. If anything there will be higher alcohol content in the gasoline in the future, also cutting farm subsidies to grow corn would be political suicide for politicians. Even the public transit buses are required to use bio diesel. If the auto manufacturers want to do something they need to make all engines adaptable to run on high alcohol content fuel because the EPA will not likely back down from this requirement. Brazil is doing well with alternate fuels.

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