Octane 100 petroleum in India

In news

Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas launches India’s first 100 Octane petrol(Branded as XP100, the premium grade petrol)

Who has developed it and where to be implemented?

The technology for India’s first100 Octane petrol has been indigenously created by Indian Oil R&D
The fuel is manufactured at IOC’s Mathura refinery in Uttar Pradesh and supplied at select petrol pumps
Indian Oil plans to roll-out XP100 premium grade petrol in 15identified cities across the country in two phases.
In the first phase, it has been made available at select ROs w.e.f December 1, 2020, in Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Agra, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Mumbai, Pune and Ahmedabad.
In the second phase, the availability of this 100 Octane petrol would be extended to Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kochi, and Kolkata.
These cities have been selected basis their aspirational demographics and availability of high-end cars and bikes dealerships in these cities

What is an octane number?

It is a figure indicating the anti-knock properties of a fuel, based on a comparison with a mixture of isooctane and heptane.
An octane rating, or octane number, is a standard measure of the performance of an engine or aviation gasoline.
The higher the octane number, the more compression the fuel can withstand before detonating.

Why high octane number is good

Fuels with a higher octane rating are used in high-performance gasoline engines that require higher compression ratios. The higher an octane number, the more stable/resistant the fuel.
The fuels with lower octane numbers (but higher cetane numbers) are ideal for diesel engines, because diesel engines (also referred to as compression-ignition engines) do not compress the fuel, but rather compress only air and then inject fuel into the air which was heated by compression.
Gasoline engines rely on ignition of air and fuel compressed together as a mixture, which is ignited near the end of the compression stroke using electrically activated spark plugs.
Therefore, high compressibility of the fuel matters mainly for gasoline engines. Use of gasoline with lower octane numbers may lead to the problem of engine knocking
Knock occurs when fuel is prematurely ignited in the engine’s cylinder, which degrades efficiency and can be damaging to the engine

Significance

Worldwide, 100 Octane petrol has a niche market for luxury vehicles that demand high performance, and is available only in six countries like Germany, USA, etc
The availability of XP100 puts India in an elite group of countries, having access to such high quality oil. It will provide high quality and power to the engine.