Effect of fuel composition on the emission of phenols in the exhaust gas from a European car.

The emission of phenols from a European car working with leaded and unleaded fuels with different percentage of aromatics has been considered. Fuels having the same aromatic content, but with a different composition of aromatic fraction, have also been taken into account. The results obtained showed that the emission of phenols increases with the increase of the aromatic content of fuel and also when unleaded instead of leaded fuels are used. The type of aromatic present in fuels was found to be important in forming the amount of both total and individual phenols emitted in the exhaust gas and in determining the number of phenolic compounds formed during combustion, although the phenol and isomer cresols were produced by combustion of all the fuels tested. The quantitative determination of individual phenols has been carried out on the benzene extract of the aqueous condensate and of the particulate matter of exhaust gas by the NaOH-extraction-GC-chromatographic method.