Mass Spectrometric Analysis for Distinction between Regular and Premium Motor Gasolines

Abstract

A method to estimate the octane number of motor gasoline by mass spectrometry (MS) has been studied, by first examining whether the octane number can be estimated from its mass spectrum (MS). The MS of 29 different regular gasolines and 32 premium gasolines, sampled in the market from spring to autumn, were measured. We studied whether it is possible to extract any available parameters for clearly distinguishing between regular and premium gasolines, by applying both feature-selection and pattern-recognition methods to MS. It was found that a clear distinction between regular and premium gasolines could be made using MS information.