Natural gasoline is a liquid

hydrocarbon In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. Hydrocarbons are examples of group 14 hydrides. Hydrocarbons are generally colourless and Hydrophobe, hydrophobic; their odor is usually fain ...

mixture condensed from natural gas, similar to common

gasoline Gasoline ( North American English) or petrol ( Commonwealth English) is a petrochemical product characterized as a transparent, yellowish, and flammable liquid normally used as a fuel for spark-ignited internal combustion engines. When for ...

(petrol) derived from

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring un ...

. The chemical composition of natural gasoline is mostly five- and six-carbon

alkane In organic chemistry, an alkane, or paraffin (a historical trivial name that also has other meanings), is an acyclic saturated hydrocarbon. In other words, an alkane consists of hydrogen and carbon atoms arranged in a tree structure in whi ...

s (

pentane Pentane is an organic compound with the chemical formula, formula C5H12—that is, an alkane with five carbon atoms. The term may refer to any of three structural isomerism, structural isomers, or to a mixture of them: in the IUPAC nomenclature, h ...

s and

hexane Hexane () or ''n''-hexane is an organic compound, a straight-chain alkane with six carbon atoms and the molecular formula C6H14. Hexane is a colorless liquid, odorless when pure, and with a boiling point of approximately . It is widely used as ...

s) with smaller amounts of alkanes with longer chains.Sheng Wang, Ying Zhang, Mao-Gang He, Xiong Zheng, and Li-Bin Chen (2014): "Thermal Diffusivity and Speed of Sound of Saturated Pentane from Light Scattering". ''International Journal of Thermophysics'', volume 35, pages 1450–1464. . Quote: "ethane 2.4% w/w, butane 1.3%, pentane 67.1%, hexane 22.0%, heptane 5.7%, and octane 1.5 %". It contains significant amounts of

isopentane Isopentane, also called methylbutane or 2-methylbutane, is a branched-chain saturated hydrocarbon (an alkane) with five carbon atoms, with formula or . Isopentane is a volatile and flammable liquid. It is one of three structural isomers with t ...

(methyl butane) , which is rare in the petroleum product.Ivan F. Avery, L. V. Harvey (1958):
Natural-gasoline and Cycling Plants in the United States
', Information circular, U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines. 12 pages. Its

boiling point The boiling point of a substance is the temperature at which the vapor pressure of a liquid equals the pressure surrounding the liquid and the liquid changes into a vapor. The boiling point of a liquid varies depending upon the surrounding envi ...

is within the standard range for gasoline, and its

vapor pressure Vapor pressure or equilibrium vapor pressure is the pressure exerted by a vapor in thermodynamic equilibrium with its condensed phases (solid or liquid) at a given temperature in a closed system. The equilibrium vapor pressure is an indicat ...

is intermediate between those of natural gas condensate (drip gas) and

liquefied petroleum gas Liquefied petroleum gas, also referred to as liquid petroleum gas (LPG or LP gas), is a fuel gas which contains a flammable mixture of hydrocarbon gases, specifically propane, Butane, ''n''-butane and isobutane. It can also contain some ...

. Its typical

gravity In physics, gravity (), also known as gravitation or a gravitational interaction, is a fundamental interaction, a mutual attraction between all massive particles. On Earth, gravity takes a slightly different meaning: the observed force b ...

is around 80

API An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how to build ...

. Natural gasoline is rather volatile and unstable, and has a low

octane rating An octane rating, or octane number, is a standard measure of a liquid fuel, fuel's ability to withstand Compression ratio, compression in an internal combustion engine without causing engine knocking. The higher the octane number, the more compres ...

, but can be blended with other hydrocarbons to produce commercial gasoline.Targray Corp (2020):
Natural Gasoline
. Product webpage, accessed on 2020-04-07. It is also used as a solvent to extract oil from

oil shale Oil shale is an organic-rich Granularity, fine-grained sedimentary rock containing kerogen (a solid mixture of Organic compound, organic chemical compounds) from which liquid hydrocarbons can be produced. In addition to kerogen, general compos ...

. Its properties are standardized by GPA Midstream (formerly Gas Processors Association).GPA Midstream
website. Accessed on 2020-04-07.

Uses

Natural gasoline is often used as a denaturant for fuel-grade

ethanol Ethanol (also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound with the chemical formula . It is an Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol, with its formula also written as , or EtOH, where Et is the ps ...

, where it is commonly added volumetrically between 2.0% and 2.5% to make denatured fuel ethanol (DFE), or E98. This process renders the fuel-grade ethanol undrinkable. It is then transferred to a blender, which will add this E98 to conventional gasoline to make common 87 octane fuels (E10). It can also be added to ethanol in higher volumetric concentrations to produce high-level blends of ethanol, such as E85. Natural gasoline has a lower

octane Octane is a hydrocarbon and also an alkane with the chemical formula C8H18, and the condensed structural formula CH3(CH2)6CH3. Octane has many structural isomers that differ by the location of branching in the carbon chain. One of these isomers ...

content (RON roughly equal to 70) than conventional commercial distilled gasoline, so it cannot normally be used by itself for fuel for modern automobiles. However, when mixed with higher concentrations of ethanol (RON roughly equal to 113) to produce products such as E85, the octane level of the natural gasoline and ethanol mixture is now within the usable range for flex-fuel vehicles.

Sources

It may be sourced from production of natural-gas wells (see " drip gas") or produced by extraction processeshttp://calteches.library.caltech.edu/106/1/Bowman.pdf. in the field, as opposed to refinery cracking of conventional gasoline.

References

Fuels Natural gas {{hydrocarbon-stub