To explain the processes occurring in the fuel system and the car engine, you will have to slightly recall, so to speak, the basics. The vast majority of gasoline cars driving on the roads of Russia consume AI-95 and / or AI-92 fuel, where the numbers indicate the octane number of a particular brand of fuel. The higher it is, the less the fuel is prone to detonation – an explosion during combustion in the engine cylinders.
Most European and Asian automakers, just in case, recommended that domestic drivers use only AI-95. In the strange hope that it is a priori of better quality and less harmful to the engine than AI-92.
Whether this is really so is the tenth matter in the case now under consideration. We are interested in a slightly different aspect of the octane number issue. It boils down to the fact that almost any fuel of this type is obtained by adding special additives to the oil fraction obtained at the refinery, which increase its octane number to the desired level.
In Russia, methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) is widely used for this. To help the reader “feel the scale”, let’s say that AI-95, which he pours into the gas tank of his car at gas stations, contains a lot of MTBE additives – about 10%.
