Octane
The octane number, or octane rating, is a measure of gasoline’s ability to resist knocking when ignited in an air-fuel mixture in the cylinder of an internal combustion engine. The octane rating of gasoline influences a vehicle’s fuel efficiency and exhaust emissions. Generally, when the octane number increases, hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions of the engine reduce, but nitrogen oxide emissions increase.
Vehicles are usually designed for a specific octane rating in gasoline. When vehicles are designed to run on a lower octane fuel, using a higher octane gasoline will not provide any benefits. However, the availability of high octane gasoline is expected to lead to more efficient engine design with higher compression rates. In the long run, this will result in lower carbon dioxide emissions from engines.
Octane in Sudan is measured with the Research Octane Number (RON), as in Europe. There is only one gasoline grade in the market according to RON and the regulatory limit is RON 90.
The SGS Worldwide Fuel Services (WWFS) results in the figure below show that the average octane number has been above the limit in all years when samples were available. In 2019, RON average of samples reached 94.
Octane in unleaded gasoline, per average and minimum, regulatory limit, 2017-2019
~
Source: SGS Worldwide Fuel Survey, 2022