Iran’s new gasoline with 35 percent methanol harmful
Dalga Khatinoglu, Energy Analyst
Iran's Automakers Association has issued a warning about newly produced gasoline with 35 percent methanol, saying this toxic material can make people blind and damage their lungs, as well as cause technical damage to vehicles.
After halting the import of some catalysts needed for producing gasoline in 2010 because of sanctions, Iranian refineries are using harmful and dangerous materials in producing the product, such as lead and Methyl Tertiary-Butyl Ether (MTBE) to improve the octane level.
Iran produces 64 million litres of gasoline per day and reportedly uses 1.5 to 2 million MTBE, which has a cancer threat in producing the product.
Iranian officials have recently said that the country is preparing to use alcohol such as ethanol and methanol instead of MTBE in the production of gasoline.
The Iranian oil minister announced on November 14, 2012 that the production line of newly generated gasoline with 35 per cent methanol has been commissioned and is planned to produce up to seven million litres of Euro 5 gasoline per day.
His statement came while the Euro 5 standard allows mixing only ethanol (not methanol) to gasoline by below five per cent. Also, the sulphur content of Euro 5 gasoline should be a maximum 10 ppm, while some Iranian media reports urge Iranian-made gasoline has a sulphur content of 180 to 1,000 ppm.
After the U.S. banned foreign companies from supplying gasoline to Iran in 2010, Tehran which had relied on 40 percent of its 64 million litre daily gasoline consumption on imports, faced a challenge and started producing gasoline in some petrochemical plants by using dangerous materials such as lead and MTBE.
Over the last two years, air pollution of some Iranian cities reached an alarming level causing people to take tens of days-off.
Some Iranian officials warned last year that air pollution in cities had reached an alert-level point.
Deputy Health Minister Hassan Aghajani said last December that air pollution in Tehran caused the deaths of 4,460 people during last solar year, which ended on March 19, 2012. He said that the government looses about $8 billion each year due to air pollution.
According to the IRNA report, Mohammad Hadi Heidarzadeh, a Tehran municipal official, said last summer that about 45,000 Tehran residents have died because of air pollution in the country. He said about 1.650 million tons of various air emissions enter Tehran air per year.
According to experts and unnamed officials' statements published in an Alef report, non-standard fuels caused 70 percent of Tehran's air pollution.