Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 29, 1990 TAG: 9004290242
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: F5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By THOMAS C. HAYES THE NEW YORK TIMES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But for all the marketing fanfare accompanying the new products, most Americans should not expect to see such lower-pollution gasolines at local pumps for at least three years.
The reason is that the oil industry has not spent the billions of dollars necessary to produce enough of a crucial additive that is used in greater quantities in the new gasolines.
The additive, methyl tertiary butyl ether, includes an oxygen molecule that promotes more thorough combustion in the engine.
Most oil companies say they do not want to add refinery capacity to produce more of the additive until the government and the states settle on pollution standards.
But some oil-company critics accuse the industry of dragging its feet. Some oil companies have moved ahead with cleaner-burning gasolines on a small scale.
In doing so they are departing from other oil companies that have decided to wait for the results early next year of an important industry study on which gasoline formula burns the cleanest.
Early signs that drivers want cleaner gasolines could force more refiners to make the leap.
ARCO said that since it began selling its new gasoline, EC-1, for older cars in Southern California last September, its share of the fuel market for pre-1975 cars - those without pollution-lowering catalytic converters, for which the gasoline was designed - had increased to 35 percent, from 33 percent.
Local authorities say ARCO's new gasoline reduces air pollution by 20 percent in cars using it.
The companies that have joined ARCO in selling cleaner-burning gasoline in the last month include the nation's largest gasoline marketer, Shell.
Last week Shell introduced the widest program thus far when it began selling a reformulated gasoline in 10 cities that can be used in most cars.
While it is comparable in price to the premium unleaded gasoline it replaced, the new gasoline costs 15 to 20 cents more than regular unleaded, the most popular blend.
Since late last month, Marathon Oil has sold "clean" blends of regular, mid-grade and premium unleaded gasoline in eight counties in southeast Michigan, including Detroit.
In much of Colorado, Conoco Inc. and Diamond Shamrock R&M are each selling reformulated gasolines for older cars.
Sunoco said it would introduce its reformulated gasoline later this year.
Some oil companies, including Texaco and Amoco, said they would probably not introduce any reformulated gasolines until the completion early next year of at least the first part of a study financed by the Big Three auto makers and 14 oil companies.
Tests on 16 fuels and gasoline blends began earlier this month at a Ford research laboratory in Dearborn, Mich.
Exxon would not discuss whether it was planning any reformulated gasoline.
Most of the new gasoline blends share formulas that not only replace polluting olefins with cleaner-burning MTBE but also reduce hydrocarbon evaporation before burning and cut emissions of carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide from the combustion itself. They also diminish levels of a toxic aromatic called benzene.
These fuels more than meet many standards for cleaner gasoline that California's air-quality regulators are expected to require by 1992.
But none of the blends meet the oxygen minimum for 1992 of 2 percent, and 2.7 percent for 1994, which would be required in the Clean Air Act Oil refiners said they could meet the higher oxygen levels approved by the Senate by adding more MTBE to their blends. But they caution that the shortage of MTBE refining capacity will make it difficult to produce enough for all of the nation's gasoline before the mid-1990's.
by CNB