PONA CALCULATION AND OCTANE RATING

EXPERIMENT FOR MOTOR GASOLINE

Nadia Mahjabin, Partha Das Chowdhury, Zayed Bin Sultan

Department of Petroleum and Mining Engineering, Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology
Super Refinery (Pvt.) Limited
Department of Petroleum and Mining Engineering, Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology

Abstract: This paper has discussed the PONA analysis
and octane rating procedure for motor gasoline (MS).
PONA analysis is an indication of the paraffin, olefin,
napthenes and aromatic percentage in a petroleum
sample. And octane rating operation indicates the
research octane number (RON), motor octane number
(MON) for a fuel sample. Here both experiments are
performed for MS (regular). The sample was collected
from the condensate fractionation plant of Super
Refinery (Pvt.) Limited. For PONA calculation FIA
method was employed and for octane rating a octane
analyzer meter ( Zx 101C) was used.
have knowledge over molecular type composition of
a petroleum product is the most important
characteristics [1].
Gasoline is e refined petroleum product that is mainly
used as fuel in internal combustion engine. It is also
called by petrol that is it’s brand/market name. It
consists carbon from C5 to C10 [2]. High aromatic
percentage present in gasoline is an indicator of high
octane rating. The performance of gasoline is mainly
depended on it’s octane number since good octane
number means low knocking tendency.

Key Words — FIA method, MS, MON, Napthenes, There are several ways to express the composition of
octane rating, petroleum, PONA, RON.
a petroleum mixture among which the most important
I. INTRODUCTION types of composition are [1]:

A petroleum stream is generally a complex mixture  PONA (paraffins, olefins, naphthenes, and

of different hydrocarbon components. The mixture is aromatics)

well defined when the composition and structure of  PNA (paraffins, naphthenes, and aromatics)

all componentss present in the mixture are known.  PIONA (paraffins, isoparaffins, olefins,

The various components present in the mixture are naphthenes, and aromatics)

generally identified by their carbon number or  SARA (saturates, aromatics, resins, and

molecular type [1]. The distillation of a petroleum asphalthenes)

stream yields product like gasoline, diesel, liquefied  Elemental analysis (Carbon, Hydrogen, Sulfer,

petroleum gas (LPG), residue etc. It is important to Nitrogen, Oxygen)

Normally most petroleum product contains a little perform several steps to get the actual percentage of
percentage of olefin. So a PNA analysis can be alkane and napthenes.
helpful. But to have a better knowledge of the B. Steps for Napthenes Calculation:
product type in this paper the PONA analysis has 7 steps for napthenes calculation are mentioned here.
been considered. This type of analysis is normally 1. (1)
useful for light and narrow boiling range petroleum
2. ( )
products (1).
( )

Here T stands for Temperature.

II. PONA ANALYSIS (FIA METHOD)
3. Corrected ∆T from Fig.I.(Appendix) (3)
The FIA method or ASTM D 1319 method,
determines saturates that is paraffin’s plus 4. (4)

naphthenes, non-aromatics, olefins, and aromatics up 5. Cyclization Index (CI) from CABP

to 315°C in a petroleum stream. But this method has & Density curve (Fig.II).

shortcoming because it does not provide information (Appendix) (5)

on naphthenes content, carbon number distribution, 6. ∆N calculation from Aromatics,% volume

or individual component identification. The & Density (Fig.II).

calculation of naphthenes content in saturates (Appendix) (6)

requires few several calculation [3]. 7. Napthenes, (7)

A. Procedure:
A liquid petroleum sample, approximately 7.5 mL is III. OCTANE RATING

introduced into a special glass column. The column Octane number is an important characteristic of spark

has been packed with activated silica gel and a small engine fuels. The spark engine fuel may be

layer of fluorescent dyed gel [4]. After the sample mentioned as gasoline, jet fuel or fractions that are

has been adsorbed on the gel, alcohol is added. used to produce these fuels (i.e. naphthas). The

Alcohol acts to desorb the sample down the column octane number of a fuel mainly represents the

to separate the hydrocarbons. The fluorescent dyes antiknock characteristic of that fuel. Iso-octane

are selectively separated into aromatic, olefin, and (2,2,4- trimethylpentane) has octane number of 100

saturate zones. The separations are only visible under and n-heptane has octane number of 0. And these are

ultraviolet light. Each boundary in the column is same on both scales of RON and MON [1].

calculated by volume percentage from the length of Octane number of a mixture is determined by the

each zone in the column. volume% of isooctane used. Iso-paraffins and

The upper limit of a portion is subtracted from it’s aromatics have high octane numbers while n-

lower limit and gives the percentage of a portion. paraffins and olefins have low octane numbers. That

This procedure doesn’t give the actual percentage of is presence of high aromatic percentage can be taken

napthenes present rather presents the total percentage as an indication of high octane number. Therefore,

of alkane and napthenes. Hence it is necessary to octane number of a fuel mainly depends on its
molecular type composition [1].
There are two types of octane number: research point (VABP) is calculated. Then the slope is
octane number (RON) is measured under city calculated from equation (2). The correction factor is
conditions while motor octane number (MON) is taken from Fig.I. The cubic average boiling point
measured under road conditions. The arithmetic (CABP) is calculated next. Cyclization index is taken
average value of RON and MON is known as posted from Fig.II. ∆N is also taken from Fig.B. Finally
octane number (PON) [1].RON is generally greater napthenes wt% is calculated from equation (7).
than MON by 6-12 points,. But it is not always true. Table II: Napthenes Calculation
At low octane numbers MON might be greater than VABP 214.88
RON by a few points. The difference between RON Slope 1.44
and MON is known as sensitivity of fuel that means Correction Factor (Fig.I) 3.56
it indicates the sensitiveness of a fuel [1]. CABP ˚F 211.32
To calculate octane number in this paper an octane CABP ˚C 100 (rounding)
meter is used. It is a Zx 101C brand octane meter. CI (Fig.II ) 69
∆N 48
Here the sample is placed in the meter and the values
Wt % 21
are displayed on a paper coming out of the meter [5].

IV. DATA COLLECTION & CALCULATION V. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

The volume% of the hydrocarbon types present in the
For performing the calculation at first some data are
sample involves two stapes. In the first step the upper
needed to be collected. It includes the distillation
and lower limit values as visible from ultra-violated
temperature of the sample at specified percentage.
light ate taken. In the second step the values are
Then this data are used to calculate the napthene
subtracted to have the range of a particular
percentage.
hydrocarbon type.
To have the distillation temperature ASTM D86
PONA calculation by weight%
method is employed. A distillation apparatus is used.
a. Aromatics = 99-84.7 = 14.3
The distillation temperature at 10%, 30%, 50%, 70% b. Olefin = 84.7-84 = 0.7
and 90% are collected, c. Alkane = 84-27 = 57
Table I: ASTM D86 data for MS d. Total Weight % = (14.3+0.7+57) = 72

Volume % Temperature ˚C Temperature ˚F Conversion from Weight% to Volume%

10 72 161.6
a. Aromatics = = 19.86 %
30 88 190.4
b. Olefin = = 0.97 %
50 100 212
c. Alkene = = 79.17 %
70 112 233.6
90 136 276.8 The results obtained are tabulated below. It has
shown a higher percentage for saturates that is 57%.
The distillation temperatures are then used to So it can be assumed that the sample may have a
calculate napthene percentage from equations lower octane number.
mentioned earlier. At first the volume average boiling
Table III: PONA Result by Weight % APEENDIX
PONA Reading Weight Volume
Observation for from % %
Composition scale
Aromatic 99-84.7 14.3 19.86
Olefin 84.7-84 0.7 0.97
Alkane ( Paraffin + 84-27 57 79.17
Napthene)
Alkane Napthene 21 29.17
Paraffin 36 50

Finally the octane rating operation is performed for

the MS sample. The results are given in Table 4.
Table IV: Octane Rating for MS Fig.I: CABP from VABP and distillation

Method Octane Comment (Engler) slope [6]

Analyzer test
RON 78.8
MON 72 Too low
(R+M)/2=PON 75.4

As expected from the PONA analysis, the sample has

a low RON value. Normally a good quality gasoline
is expected to have a RON of nearly 95. But this
sample has yielded a result that is too far from the
standard one. MON value is also low. One cannot
expect to use this fuel for running an engine without
further operations to improve the octane rating.

VI. CONCLUSION
To have knowledge over a particular petroleum type
the compositional analysis is very important. It may
be good one if the chromatographic analysis or the
PIANO analysis can be performed because these tests
yield the actual compositional type of a sample. But
this was not possible in this paper. Although the
results generated indicates a good approximation
with the calculated one. To have a good octane rating
the paraffinic portion is needed to be degrades. This
can be done by adding booster or by performing
some additional operation.
Fig.II: Napthenes calculation graph (source SRL)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors are grateful to pay deep gratitude to the
almighty. The authors express special thanks to the
teachers of Petroleum and Mining Engineering
Department of Chittagong University of Engineering
& Technology and the officials of Super Refinery
(Pvt.) Limited for helping to complete the job in time.
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