The impact of catalytic materials on fuel reformulation

Fuel reformulation has been seeded by the growing consciousness of the potential damages mankind was causing to the ecosystem and to itself. Fuel reformulation means that fuels are defined on a chemical composition base with additional engine-technology related standards rather than on pure performance bases. These standards, which are getting more and more stringent, can be met by different leverages, mainly catalysts and processes operating conditions. This survey reviews the contribution of catalytic materials to the production of cleaner fuel components through some significant examples selected from scientific and technical literature. Having described the trends in automotive fuels quality, production of gasoline and diesel pool components is discussed relating the required properties to the material active site configuration, i.e. acidity/basicity, structural parameters, physical constraints. While distinctions are made between pathways leading to gasoline and those leading to diesel, sulfur removal is faced on a more generalized approach. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.