Methods to Increase Octane Number
Chemistry · 5th Year · Fuels and Heats of Reaction · 3o Periodo

Methods to Increase Octane Number

Students examine the industrial processes used by oil refineries to improve fuel quality, including isomerisation and catalytic cracking.

NCCA Curriculum SpecificationsNCCA Leaving Certificate Chemistry: Section 5 - Fuels and Heats of Reaction;Describe isomerisation, dehydrocyclisation, catalytic cracking, and the addition of oxygenates to increase octane number.

About This Topic

Students examine the industrial processes used by oil refineries to improve fuel quality, including isomerisation and catalytic cracking.

Key Questions

  1. How do oil refineries modify hydrocarbons to improve fuel quality?
  2. What is the chemical difference between isomerisation, dehydrocyclisation, and catalytic cracking?
  3. Why are oxygenates added to modern petrol?

Active Learning Ideas

See all activities→

Activities & Teaching Strategies

See all activities

Planning templates for Chemistry

Lesson Plan

Science

A science-specific template built around the scientific method, with sections for phenomena, investigation, data analysis, and claims-evidence-reasoning (CER) writing.

More in Fuels and Heats of Reaction

Exothermic and Endothermic Reactions

Students explore the energy changes that occur during chemical reactions and learn to interpret energy profile diagrams.

2 methodologies

Heat of Reaction and Heat of Combustion

Students define heat of reaction and heat of combustion, and examine how bomb calorimetry is used to measure the energy content of fuels.

2 methodologies

Hess's Law of Heat Summation

Students learn to apply Hess's Law to calculate the enthalpy changes of reactions that cannot be measured directly.

2 methodologies

Hydrocarbons as Fuels

Students investigate the fractional distillation of crude oil and the everyday uses of various hydrocarbon fractions.

2 methodologies