# Gas Pumps & Oxygenated Fuel?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gas-pumps-oxygenated-fuel/401959>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 28, 2007, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gas-pumps-oxygenated-fuel/401959 "2007-04-28T14:38:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2007, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gas-pumps-oxygenated-fuel/401959/1 "2007-04-28T14:38:42Z")

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First, what exactly is meant by “oxygenated fuel”? Is this ethanol? Is it a fancy way to say that a -OH group has been “tacked on” to the carbon chain?

Second, didn’t “they” convince us that oxygenated fuels would be used in the winter months (in the US’ East Coast region) to cut down on emissions when cars idle more often in the colder months, for one? And, if this is true, then why is AAA reporting that one cause for the jump in gas prices is because many refineries have to go off-line to gear up for a switchover to producing oxygenated fuels. Sounds like bunk to me.

So, what’s the SD on the addition of oxygenated fuels? Have they snookered us yet again? - Jinx

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**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2007, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gas-pumps-oxygenated-fuel/401959/2 "2007-04-28T15:00:35Z")

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Oxygenated fuel, simply means the addition of an additive, such as ethanol, that contains oxygen. It doesn’t have to be an -OH group, it could be an ether as in MTBE (methyl _tert_-butyl ether).