What fuel additive, which in the past was used to raise gasoline's (petrol's) octane rating, was phased out in the US over 20 years ago?

T_Hawk

Can't find any back up for this, but I think the answer is lead. May 30 07, 2:12 PM

Triviaballer

Leaded gasoline has been phased out in most developed nations since the 1980s. Tetra-ethyl lead was the most popular lead-based additive, but the environmental and health-related damage caused by lead has led to it being phased out and replaced by ethanol and other additives. The attached article (section 5.1) talks about lead-based gasoline. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaded_gasoline#Lead May 30 07, 2:22 PM

collect

http://www.ethyl.com/index.htm "Tetraethyl lead" from the Ethyl Corp. was the additive -- it is still made, and they also make the other additives for actane enhancement. May 30 07, 2:48 PM

MonkeyOnALeash

"In the U.S., where lead was blended with gasoline (primarily to boost octane levels) since the early 1920s, standards to phase out leaded gasoline were first implemented in 1973. In 1995, leaded fuel accounted for only 0.6 % of total gasoline sales and less than 2,000 tons of lead per year." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline#Lead It was still available in the "Deep South", where I lived, in the late 1990's. May 30 07, 9:16 PM