Tetraethyllead (also known as tetraethyl lead) is an organolead chemical having the formula Pb(C2H5)4 and the abbreviation TEL. It’s a fuel additive that was first added with gasoline in the 1920s as a proprietary octane rating enhancer that allowed engines to run at higher compression levels. As a result, vehicle performance and fuel economy improved. TEL had been discovered chemically in the mid-nineteenth century, but it was only in 1921 that General Motors discovered its efficiency as an antiknock agent, following years of searching for an additive that was both very effective and economical.
Later, concerns about the hazardous effects of lead, particularly on children, were raised. Catalytic converters are also poisoned by lead and lead oxides, which are a primary source of spark plug fouling. Many countries began phasing out and eventually eliminating TEL in motor fuel as early as the 1970s. According to a UN-backed analysis from 2011, the elimination of TEL resulted in $2.4 trillion in annual benefits and 1.2 million fewer premature deaths.
In some types of aviation fuel, TEL is still used as an additive. TEL was being made illegally by many businesses in China as of 2013, according to Innospec, which claims to be the last firm legitimately producing it. The sale of leaded gasoline for automobiles was totally phased out in July 2021, forcing the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to announce a “official halt” to its usage in automobiles on August 30. (although it is still available in aviation fuel for light aircraft).
Is leaded gasoline still in use?
“It took two years to put lead into gasoline and 60 years to take it out,” a specialist investigating lead poisoning in children once said. It took a long debate between scientists, regulatory agencies, and industry to get a consensus on leaded fuel’s intolerable harm to human health. It appears that the world has finally turned a corner on the usage of this harmful chemical in fuel, according to recent encouraging news.
Lead has been used in gasoline since the 1920s, when tetraethyl lead was added to minimize engine knocking. Tailpipes in the UK emitted an estimated 140,000 tonnes of lead into the atmosphere between 1970 and the end of the century. The use of lead in petrol has been prohibited since 1999.
Lower-income countries, like Algeria, have found it more difficult to phase out lead. According to the United Nations, leaded petrol has been officially eradicated as of July 2021, which means it is no longer available for vehicles or lorries anywhere in the world.
Though lead-containing gasoline hasn’t been seen at UK station pumps this century, lead contamination remains a persistent threat. Lead was found in airborne dust collected in London between 2014 and 2018, over two decades after tailpipe emissions of the metal had stopped.
What’s the difference between unleaded and leaded gasoline?
It’s as easy as that: leaded gasoline contains lead, but unleaded gasoline does not.
Lead was once added to gasoline to raise its octane rating and prevent knock (or ping) in automobile engines. The inclusion of lead, on the other hand, meant that the fuel was more hazardous to the environment and to people’s health in general.
Why is lead in gasoline such a horrible thing?
- The official phase-out of leaded gasoline will save USD 2.45 trillion annually and avoid more than 1.2 million premature deaths.
- To combat air pollution and climate change, the UNEP urges governments to work toward zero-emission automobiles.
30 August 2021, Nairobi In July, when service stations in Algeria stopped selling leaded gasoline, the use of leaded gasoline came to an end worldwide. The UNEP-led global Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles has been fighting for clean fuels and vehicles for almost two decades (PCFV).
After contaminating the air, dust, soil, drinking water, and food crops for more than a century, leaded gasoline will be phased out globally in 2021. Leaded gasoline is linked to heart disease, stroke, and cancer. It also has an impact on brain development, particularly in children, with studies indicating that it can impair IQ by 5-10 points. It is anticipated that banning the use of leaded gasoline will prevent more than 1.2 million premature deaths per year, raise children’s IQ scores, save the global economy USD 2.45 trillion, and lower crime rates.
“The successful implementation of the leaded gasoline ban represents a watershed moment for global health and the environment,” stated UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen. “After overcoming a century of deaths and illnesses that impacted hundreds of millions of people and harmed the environment around the world, we are energized to change humanity’s trajectory for the better by accelerating the transition to clean vehicles and electric mobility.”
Although most high-income countries had banned the use of leaded gasoline by the 1980s, practically all low- and middle-income countries, including several members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), continued to do so as late as 2002. The PCFV is a public-private partnership that brought together all parties, giving technical support, raising awareness, overcoming local problems and resistance from local oil dealers and lead producers, and investing in refinery renovations.
“When the UN began working with governments and industries to phase out lead from gasoline, Sub-Saharan African states joyfully seized this opportunity,” said Dr. Kwaku Afriyie, Ghana’s Minister of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation. Ghana was one of five countries from West Africa to participate in early sub-regional seminars and declarations. Ghana grew even more keen to rid its fuel of lead as a result of PCFV’s media campaigns, investigations, studies, exposing illegalities, and public testing that revealed excessive levels of lead in the population’s blood.
Despite this progress, the rapidly expanding global vehicle fleet continues to pose a threat of local air, water, and soil pollution, as well as contributing to the global climate crisis: the transportation sector currently accounts for nearly a quarter of all energy-related global greenhouse gas emissions, with that figure expected to rise to one-third by 2050.
While many countries have begun the shift to electric vehicles, there will be 1.2 billion more vehicles on the road in the next few decades, many of which will run on fossil fuels, particularly in developing countries. This includes millions of low-quality old vehicles exported to mid- and low-income countries from Europe, the United States, and Japan. This contributes to global warming and air pollution, as well as causing road accidents.
“The fact that a UN-backed coalition of governments, industry, and civil society was able to successfully rid the world of this harmful fuel is testament to multilateralism’s potential to propel the world toward sustainability and a cleaner, greener future,” Ms. Andersen said. “We urge these same stakeholders to be inspired by this monumental achievement and ensure that, now that we have cleaner fuels, we adopt better vehicle standards around the world. The combination of cleaner fuels and automobiles can reduce emissions by more than 80%.”
Furthermore, while the greatest source of lead pollution has been eradicated, immediate action is still required to prevent lead pollution from other sources, such as lead in paints, leaded batteries, and lead in household products.
Multiple Sustainable Development Goals, such as excellent health and well-being (SDG3), clean water (SDG6), clean energy (SDG7), sustainable cities (SDG11), climate action (SDG13), and life on land, are predicted to benefit from the elimination of leaded gasoline (SDG15). It also provides an opportunity to restore ecosystems, particularly in metropolitan areas where this hazardous pollutant has had a particularly negative impact. Finally, it is a significant step forward ahead of this year’s International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies on September 7th.
The Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles (PCFV) is a non-profit organization that promotes the use of clean fuels and vehicles.
At the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002, the Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles (PCFV) was established. With the goal of eliminating leaded gasoline globally, UNEP hosted the Secretariat and gave support to a number of countries and regional efforts. At the time, leaded gasoline was still used in 117 countries throughout the world, with 86 countries supporting the phase-out of leaded gasoline. Sub-Saharan Africa became the first continent to be free of lead in 2006. Algeria was the last country to transition in July 2021.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is the world’s leading environmental organization. It provides leadership and promotes collaboration in environmental protection by inspiring, informing, and allowing nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without jeopardizing future generations’.
Why do we put lead in gasoline?
-Octane is added to gasoline via tetraethyl lead, which prevents engine knock. Other octane suppliers include benzene and ethanol, however lead is favoured because to its low production cost. It’s added to gasoline to make it burn more smoothly in automobiles. As a result, lead compound is added to gasoline.
Who put the lead in the gasoline?
Thomas Midgley, Jr. was an American scientist who created the tetraethyl lead (TEL) additive for gasoline and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and had over a hundred patents. While he was praised for his findings at the time, his legacy is now viewed as significantly more mixed due to the serious detrimental environmental consequences of his advances. Midgley “had more impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in Earth’s history,” according to one scholar.
To control engine knock, Midgley experimented with hundreds of compounds. A chemist supplied a little amount of tetraethyl lead, or TEL, to Midgley on December 9, 1921, and when he mixed it with the fuel and ran the one-cylinder test engine, the engine knock was gone. Shortly after, GM and Standard Oil of New Jersey (the precursor of Exxon) founded the Ethyl Corporation to produce TEL. Although the company’s name was carefully designed to avoid the word “lead,” factory protections were not as effective. Workers at the Ethyl plant began to develop lead poisoning not long after it opened. Two workers died after being exposed to “loony gas,” as the tabloids dubbed it. Midgley was poisoned by lead and went on vacation to “obtain a substantial supply of fresh air.” Midgley, ironically, would go on to discover freon, a refrigerant that has been used to chill interior air for nearly half a century.
The US Public Health Service issued a warning about the dangers of lead manufacturing and leaded fuel in 1922. These cautious warnings, however, were ignored, and the principal phase-out of leaded gasoline in the United States did not take place until 1984. In 1996, the World Bank recommended for a ban on leaded gasoline, and in 2000, the European Union did so. In the United States alone, it is estimated that 7 million tons of lead were emitted into the atmosphere due to gasoline use.
Which countries continue to sell leaded gasoline?
Tetraethyl lead (TEL) is an organometallic chemical that is added to gasoline to raise the octane rating and act as an engine antiknock. Tetraethyl lead has been in use since the 1920s, however it has now been found to be poisonous and is no longer used in most parts of the world. The Earth Summit of 2002 campaigned for a worldwide ban on leaded gasoline. Leaded gasoline was planned to be phased out globally by 2006. The health risks of lead and its damaging effect on the environment are the grounds for the ban on leaded gasoline. Although the majority of countries have adopted the ban, several continue use leaded gasoline. Algeria, Iraq, Yemen, Myanmar, North Korea, and Afghanistan are the countries in question. The conversion from leaded to unleaded petrol has financial implications, which may be the main reason why these countries have been unable to make the switch.
What is the difference between leaded and unleaded diesel?
There are several varieties of unleaded gasoline, as if there weren’t already enough options for driving your car.
All contain up to 5% bioethanol (with the exception of E10, which contains up to 10%) and are distinguished by their Research Octane Number (RON):
E10 (95 octane)
On September 1, 2021, this became the standard grade of petrol in the United Kingdom, with Northern Ireland following suit in 2022. See our helpful E10 guide for more information.
Super Unleaded (97/98 RON)
Some high-performance Japanese automobiles require the highest-octane fuel available, while others (such as Porsches) prefer it, albeit the benefits are small in most cases.
Premium fuels
Some stores sell their own high-performance, high-octane fuels, such as Total Excellium Unleaded and Shell V-Power Unleaded, both of which have the UK’s highest octane rating of 99 RON.
In Summer 2019, the labeling for unleaded gasoline (and diesel) was modified to comply with current EU standards rules. Instead of being referred to as “unleaded” or “diesel,” fuels are now referred to by their biofuel blend (unleaded petrol is now referred to as E for ethanol, and diesel is now referred to as B for biodiesel) and biofuel percentage.
While all petrol pumps in the UK are required to adopt this style of labeling, shopkeepers frequently employ older designations alongside “unleaded” and “diesel” to assist motorists.