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Names | |
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Preferred IUPAC name 2-Methoxy-2-methylpropane | |
Other names
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Identifiers | |
3D model (JSmol) | |
ChEBI | |
ChemSpider | |
ECHA InfoCard | 100.015.140 |
KEGG | |
PubChem CID | |
UNII | |
CompTox Dashboard (EPA) | |
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Properties | |
C5H12O | |
Molar mass | 88.150 g·mol−1 |
Appearance | colourless liquid |
Density | 0.7404 g/cm3 |
Melting point | −108.6 °C (−163.5 °F; 164.6 K) |
Boiling point | 55.5 °C (131.9 °F; 328.6 K) |
26 g/L (20 °C) [1] | |
Vapor pressure | 27kPa (20ºC) |
Viscosity | 3.4·10−4 Pa·s (at 25ºC) |
Hazards | |
NFPA 704 (fire diamond) | |
Flash point | −32.78 °C (−27.00 °F; 240.37 K) |
435 °C (815 °F; 708 K) | |
Except where otherwise noted, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C [77 °F], 100 kPa). |
Methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), also known as tert-butyl methyl ether, is an organic compound with a structural formula (CH3)3COCH3. MTBE is a volatile, flammable, and colorless liquid that is sparingly soluble in water. [1] Primarily used as a fuel additive, MTBE is blended into gasoline to increase its octane rating and knock resistance, and reduce unwanted emissions. [2] [3]
MTBE is manufactured via the chemical reaction of methanol and isobutylene. Methanol is primarily derived from natural gas, [4] where steam reforming converts the various light hydrocarbons in natural gas (primarily methane) into carbon monoxide and hydrogen. [5] The resulting gases then further react in the presence of a catalyst to form methanol. [6] Isobutylene can be produced through a variety of methods. n-butane can be isomerized into isobutane which can be dehydrogenated to isobutylene. [7] In the Halcon process, t-Butyl hydroperoxide derived from isobutane oxygenation is treated with propylene to produce propylene oxide and t-butanol. The t-butanol can be dehydrated to isobutylene.
MTBE production across the globe has been steady because of its positive impact on engine performance. [8] The global demand has been mainly driven by growing Asian markets. [9] Chinese capacity grew from ~18 million metric tons in 2017 [10] to ~22 millions in 2023, with actual production standing at ~16 millions in the same year. [11]
Under pressure from the bioethanol lobby, [8] production of MTBE in the U.S. peaked in 1999 at 260,000 barrels per day [12] before dropping down due to environmental and health concerrns to about 50,000 barrels per day and holding steady, [13] mostly for the export market. After the purchase of SABIC, [14] [15] oil giant Saudi Aramco is now considered to be the world's largest producer [16] with an estimated production capacity of 2.37 million metric tons per year (mt/yr). [17] Worldwide production capacity of MTBE in 2018 was estimated to be 35 million metric tons. [18]
MTBE is used as a fuel component in fuel for gasoline engines. It is one of a group of chemicals commonly known as oxygenates because they raise the oxygen content of gasoline.
In the U.S. MTBE has been used in gasoline at low levels since 1979, replacing tetraethyllead (TEL) as an antiknock (octane rating) additive to prevent engine knocking. [19] Oxygenates also help gasoline burn more completely, reducing tailpipe emissions. Oxygenates also dilute or displace gasoline components such as aromatics (e.g., benzene). Before the introduction of other oxygenates and octane enhancers, refiners chose MTBE for its blending characteristics and low cost.
Other oxygenates are available as additives for gasoline including ethanol and other ethers such as ETBE.
Ethanol has been advertised as a safe alternative by agricultural and other interest groups in the U.S. and Europe. In 2003, California was the first U.S. state to start replacing MTBE with ethanol.
An alternative to ethanol is ETBE, which is manufactured from ethanol and isobutene. Its performance as an additive is similar to MTBE, but due to the higher price of ethanol compared to methanol, it is more expensive.
Higher quality gasoline is also an alternative, so that additives such as MTBE are unnecessary. Iso-octane itself is used. MTBE plants can be retrofitted to produce iso-octane from isobutylene. [20] [21]
MTBE is sometimes used as a solvent, [22] [23] [24] although it is used less commonly than diethyl ether. Although an ether, MTBE is a poor Lewis base and does not support formation of Grignard reagents. It is also unstable toward strong acids. It reacts dangerously with bromine. [25]
MTBE forms azeotropes with water (52.6 °C; 96.5% MTBE) [26] and methanol (51.3 °C; 68.6% MTBE). [27] The solubility of water in MTBE is reported to be 1.5 g/100g at 23 °C. [26]
In an investigational medical procedure called contact dissolution therapy, MTBE is injected directly into the gallbladder to dissolve cholesterol gallstones. Due to concerns of MTBE toxicity and potentially serious side effects in the event of solvent draining into the duodenum, and the advent of laparoscopic surgery techniques, this procedure is considered obsolete. [28] [29] [30]
MTBE is used in organic chemistry as a relatively inexpensive solvent with properties comparable to diethyl ether, but with a higher boiling point and less solubility in water. As a solvent, MTBE has one distinct advantage over most ethers - it has a much lower tendency to form explosive organic peroxides. It is widely used as a solvent in industry where, for safety and regulatory reasons, handling diethyl ether or other ethers is much more difficult and expensive. MTBE as a solvent is used in the oil refining industry as a method for dewaxing waxy petroleum fractions.
MTBE gives water an unpleasant taste, even at very low concentrations of <30 μg/L (<30ppb). [31] . MTBE often is introduced into water-supply aquifers by leaking underground storage tanks (USTs) at gasoline stations or spills of gasoline. The higher water solubility and persistence of MTBE cause it to travel faster and farther than many other components of gasoline when released into an aquifer. [32]
MTBE is biodegraded by the action of bacteria. In the proper type of bioreactor, such as a fluidized bed bioreactor, MTBE may be removed rapidly and economically from water to undetectable levels. Activated carbon produced from coconut shells and optimized for MTBE adsorption may reduce MTBE to undetectable levels, [33] although this level of reduction is likely to occur only in the most ideal circumstances. There are currently no known published cases of any in-situ treatment method that has been capable of reducing contaminant concentrations to baseline (pre-development) conditions within the aquifer soil matrix.
According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a branch of the World Health Organization, MTBE is not classified as a human carcinogen.
The Energy Policy Act of 2005, as approved by the U.S. House of Representatives, did not include a provision for shielding MTBE manufacturers from water contamination lawsuits. This provision was first proposed in 2003 and had been thought by some to be a priority of Tom DeLay and Rep. Joe Barton, then chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee. [34] This bill did include a provision that gave MTBE makers, including some major oil companies, $2 billion in transition assistance while MTBE was phased out over the following nine years. [35] Due to opposition in the Senate, [36] the conference report dropped all MTBE provisions. The final bill was signed into law by President George W. Bush. [37] The lack of MTBE liability protection is resulting in a switchover to the use of ethanol as a gasoline additive.
MTBE removal from groundwater and soil contamination in the U.S. was estimated to cost from $1 billion [38] to US$30 billion, [39] including removing the compound from aquifers and municipal water supplies and replacing leaky underground oil tanks. In one case, the cost to oil companies to clean up the MTBE in wells belonging to the city of Santa Monica, California was estimated to exceed $200 million. [40] In another case, New York City estimated a $250 million cost for cleanup of a single wellfield in the borough of Queens in 2009. [41] In 2013 a jury awarded the State of New Hampshire $236 million in damages in order to treat groundwater contaminated by MTBE. [42]
Many lawsuits are still pending regarding MTBE contamination of public and private drinking water supplies.
EPA first listed MTBE in 1998 as a candidate for development of a national Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) standard in drinking water. [43] The agency listed MTBE on its Contaminant Candidate List in 2022 but has not announced whether it will develop an MCL. [44] EPA uses toxicity data in developing MCLs for public water systems. [45]
California established a state-level MCL for MTBE, 13 micrograms per liter, in 2000. [46]
Methanol is an organic chemical compound and the simplest aliphatic alcohol, with the chemical formula CH3OH. It is a light, volatile, colorless and flammable liquid with a distinctive alcoholic odor similar to that of ethanol, but is more acutely toxic than the latter. Methanol acquired the name wood alcohol because it was once produced chiefly by the destructive distillation of wood. Today, methanol is mainly produced industrially by hydrogenation of carbon monoxide.
Gasoline or petrol is a petrochemical product characterized as a transparent, yellowish, and flammable liquid normally used as a fuel for spark-ignited internal combustion engines. When formulated as a fuel for engines, gasoline is chemically composed of organic compounds derived from the fractional distillation of petroleum and later chemically enhanced with gasoline additives. It is a high-volume profitable product produced in crude oil refineries.
Butanol (also called butyl alcohol) is a four-carbon alcohol with a formula of C4H9OH, which occurs in five isomeric structures (four structural isomers), from a straight-chain primary alcohol to a branched-chain tertiary alcohol; all are a butyl or isobutyl group linked to a hydroxyl group (sometimes represented as BuOH, sec-BuOH, i-BuOH, and t-BuOH). These are 1-butanol, two stereoisomers of sec-butyl alcohol, isobutanol and tert-butyl alcohol. Butanol is primarily used as a solvent and as an intermediate in chemical synthesis, and may be used as a fuel. Biologically produced butanol is called biobutanol, which may be n-butanol or isobutanol.
Biofuel is a fuel that is produced over a short time span from biomass, rather than by the very slow natural processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels such as oil. Biofuel can be produced from plants or from agricultural, domestic or industrial bio waste. Biofuels are mostly used for transportation, but can also be used for heating and electricity. Biofuels are regarded as a renewable energy source. The use of biofuel has been subject to criticism regarding the "food vs fuel" debate, varied assessments of their sustainability, and ongoing deforestation and biodiversity loss as a result of biofuel production.
Ethyl tertiary-butyl ether (ETBE), also known as ethyl tert-butyl ether, is commonly used as an oxygenate gasoline additive in the production of gasoline from crude oil. ETBE offers equal or greater air quality benefits than ethanol, while being technically and logistically less challenging. Unlike ethanol, ETBE does not induce evaporation of gasoline, which is one of the causes of smog, and does not absorb moisture from the atmosphere.
Diisopropyl ether is a secondary ether that is used as a solvent. It is a colorless liquid that is slightly soluble in water, but miscible with organic solvents. It is used as an extractant and an oxygenate gasoline additive. It is obtained industrially as a byproduct in the production of isopropanol by hydration of propylene. Diisopropyl ether is sometimes represented by the abbreviation DIPE.
Isobutylene is a hydrocarbon with the chemical formula (CH3)2C=CH2. It is a four-carbon branched alkene (olefin), one of the four isomers of butylene. It is a colorless flammable gas, and is of considerable industrial value.
Saudi Basic Industries Corporation, known as SABIC, is a Saudi chemical manufacturing company. 70% of SABIC's shares are owned by Saudi Aramco. It is active in petrochemicals, chemicals, industrial polymers and fertilizers. It is the second largest public company in the Middle East and Saudi Arabia as listed in Tadawul.
tert-Butyl alcohol is the simplest tertiary alcohol, with a formula of (CH3)3COH (sometimes represented as t-BuOH). Its isomers are 1-butanol, isobutanol, and butan-2-ol. tert-Butyl alcohol is a colorless solid, which melts near room temperature and has a camphor-like odor. It is miscible with water, ethanol and diethyl ether.
In the liquid fuel industry, oxygenates are hydrocarbon-derived fuel additives containing at least one oxygen atom to promote complete combustion. Absent oxygenates, fuel combustion is usually incomplete, and the exhaust stream pollutes the air with carbon monoxide, soot particles, aromatic and polyaromatic hydrocarbons, and nitrated polyaromatic hydrocarbons.
Various alcohols are used as fuel for internal combustion engines. The first four aliphatic alcohols are of interest as fuels because they can be synthesized chemically or biologically, and they have characteristics which allow them to be used in internal combustion engines. The general chemical formula for alcohol fuel is CnH2n+1OH.
The United States produces mainly biodiesel and ethanol fuel, which uses corn as the main feedstock. The US is the world's largest producer of ethanol, having produced nearly 16 billion gallons in 2017 alone. The United States, together with Brazil accounted for 85% of all ethanol production, with total world production of 27.05 billion gallons. Biodiesel is commercially available in most oilseed-producing states. As of 2005, it was somewhat more expensive than fossil diesel, though it is still commonly produced in relatively small quantities, in comparison to petroleum products and ethanol fuel.
Dimethyl carbonate (DMC) is an organic compound with the formula OC(OCH3)2. It is a colourless, flammable liquid. It is classified as a carbonate ester. This compound has found use as a methylating agent and as a co-solvent in lithium-ion batteries. Notably, dimethyl carbonate is a weak methylating agent, and is not considered as a carcinogen. Instead, dimethyl carbonate is often considered to be a green reagent, and it is exempt from the restrictions placed on most volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the United States.
An antiknock agent is a gasoline additive used to reduce engine knocking and increase the fuel's octane rating by raising the temperature and pressure at which auto-ignition occurs. The mixture known as gasoline or petrol, when used in high compression internal combustion engines, has a tendency to knock and/or to ignite early before the correctly timed spark occurs.
The MTBE controversy concerns methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), a gasoline additive that replaced tetraethyllead. MTBE is an oxygenate and raises gasoline's octane number. Its use declined in the United States in response to environmental and health concerns. It has polluted groundwater due to MTBE-containing gasoline being spilled or leaked at gas stations. MTBE spreads more easily underground than other gasoline components due to its higher solubility in water. Cost estimates for removing MTBE from groundwater and contaminated soil range from $1 billion to $30 billion, including removing the compound from aquifers and municipal water supplies, and replacing leaky underground oil tanks. Who will pay for remediation is controversial. In one case, the cost to oil companies to clean up the MTBE in wells belonging to the city of Santa Monica, California is estimated to exceed $200 million.
tert-Amyl methyl ether (TAME) is an ether used as a fuel oxygenate. TAME derives from C5 distillation fractions of naphtha. It has an ethereous odor. Unlike most ethers, it does not require a stabilizer as it does not form peroxides on storage.
M85 is a fuel consisting of 85% methanol and 15% gasoline (petrol). It is a potential alternative to traditional gasoline and ethanol. M85 is similar to E85, but cannot be used in vehicles designed for E85. Although it is similar in composition, M85 is not as well known as its ethanol counterpart. Despite these issues, methanol is considered a viable alternative fuel as it contains high levels of hydrogen.
tert-Amyl ethyl ether (TAEE) is a chemical compound, classified as an ether, with the molecular formula C7H16O. It is used as an additive in gasoline fuels as an oxygenate and also as a solvent in organic chemistry.
Reformulated Blendstock for Oxygenate Blending (RBOB) is a gasoline futures contract traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). It is the benchmark futures contract for wholesale gasoline in the United States.