Quality of Fuel used by Germna Armed Forces.

[behblc]

With reards to actual fuel ( petrol , diesel, lubricating oils) , used by Germany's armed forces .
Q. From a quality aspect how did they compare with similar fuels used by the Allies and if the quality of fuels had any influence at "the front".
Was aviation fuel of inferior quality to that used by the Allies ?
I would ask that if any replies are made with reference to bombing , that this reference relate to either "The Oil Plan" / attacks made on Petrochemical / refining industry / synthetics plants alone , and not developed of thread / subject to make the subject of dabate " area bombing". The latter not being the issue at heart.
Thanks to all who might contribute.

[r. burns]

The German petrochemical industry was the world leader until the end of the war. The problem was....it was easily targeted though not easily hit. The Luftwaffe needed high octane fuel, not so much at the beginning but as the war progressed. Developments in high performance engines demanded it. In 1940, Standard Oil (Indiana) developed Catalytic Reforming allowing for the production of high octane fuels from lower grades of petroleum. Once the US was in the war, high octane fuel was easily produced and provided to Allied forces. The Germans(I.G. Farben) focused on the production of synthetics because their oil sources were unstable or prone to attack. As the bombing took it's toll, the amount of high octane fuel dropped dramatically reducing the performance of all vehicles that required it. You put a lower grade of fuel into an engine that requires high octane and you get "knock" and poor performance.
Diesel and lubricants were lower grade fuels. German industry could at least provide the bare minimum until near the end.

As a side note...I.G. Farben was dismantled by the Allies after the war and replaced by 3 firms. BASF, Bayer, and Hoechst. US petrochemicals ruled the world post-war. Today the 3 largest chemical companies are....BASF, Bayer, and Hoechst

[behblc]

Thank you for your reply cetainly filled in a gap in my knowledge.
Much appreciated.

[Patrick]

I'm not familiar with IG Farben's business structure. Did you mean that IG Farben was eliminated, leaving BASF, Bayer, and Hoechst to fill the void or that the assets of IG Farben were split out into three subsidiaries (similar to the way Standard Oil was broken up)? Thanks.

[r. burns]

Most of Farben's assets were confiscated and transferred to the other companies. Farben went into liquidation in 1952 but, amazingly, it's stock was still traded and a shell of the company was around until just recently.

[Darrin]

The allies were also dismatleing jap conglomerates and monoplolys but more slowly then ger. This finally stopped when the korean war broke out.

[Paul_9686]

German aviation fuel was 87 octane, right? So, what was the octane rating for their land-forces gasoline?

Yours,
Paul

[bf109 emil]

German aviation fuel was 87 octane, right? So, what was the octane rating for their land-forces gasoline?

Yours,
Paul

By the early 1930s, automobile gasoline had an octane reading of 40 and aviation gasoline of 75-80. Aviation gasoline with such high octane numbers could only be refined through a process of distillation of high-grade petroleum. Germany’s domestic oil was not of this quality. Only the lead additive tetraethyl could raise the octane to a maximum of 87. The license for the production of this additive was acquired in 1935 from the American holder of the patents, but without high-grade oil even this additive was not very effective.

Hydrogenation promised a way out. It allowed a gasoline with an octane reading of 60 to 72, and thus high antiknock properties, to be manufactured. With the aid of lead tetraethyl, the octane reading could be raised to 87. High octane gasoline was important, as its antiknock characteristics determined the compression ratio of an engine that used the fuel, and the compression ratio in turn determined the engine’s power.18

http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airc ... becker.htm

[dbloge]

so our low grade car fuel today was basically their airplane fuel?


doug

[bf109 emil]

so our low grade car fuel today was basically their airplane fuel?


doug

yes, the advantages to the allied airforce by quality fuel was shown in the ability to increase boost in superchargers, make a significant gain in horsepower...would have been curious had the fuel octanes or quality been reversed between there respected foes...

[phylo_roadking]

the advantages to the allied airforce by quality fuel was shown in the ability to increase boost in superchargers, make a significant gain in horsepower...would have been curious had the fuel octanes or quality been reversed between there respected foes...

The answer is probably - nothing. Fuel isn't the answer, but what it does i.e. allows you to raise compression ratios in engines. A low-power, but large capacity engine isn't much use LOL except for reliability!

The design process is actually the other way round - fuels are developed to make the best of engine developments - turbosuperchargers, engine-driven superchargers...and in turn those engines have to be designed to BE blown. Therefore to make the best of high-octane fuels, engines and their ancilliary inlet systems have to be designed to NEED them

Remember the issue of the RAF's P38 Lightnings supplied WITHOUT turbosuperchargers? And the high-octane fuel that "iced", the anti-knock agents sludged and simply weren't in the fuel when it reached the combustion chamber? If it had been pumped through the intercooler at the speed it was SUPPOSED to have been...by the original turbosupercharger...there wouldn't have been a problem.

[bf109 emil]

The answer is probably - nothing. Fuel isn't the answer, but what it does i.e. allows you to raise compression ratios in engines. A low-power, but large capacity engine isn't much use LOL except for reliability!

http://www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org/ ... -fuel.html
not compression ratio but pounds of boost from a higher octane fuel., resulting in an increase of horsepower...raising compression ratio in an aspirated engine perhaps but in a supercharged engine it allows the manifold pressure to be ran at a higher setting and thus increase an engines ability to make horsepower without detonating here is some results of increased performances using 100/150 octane fuel over the standard or previous 100/130 fuel and the increase in a planes speed due to increase of manifold pressure and horsepower from a simple raising of octane

During 1942 and 1943 the British started testing fuels that allowed for higher engine powers than were possible using the standard fuel of the time.

Testing of a Spitfire IX by Rolls Royce, Hucknall in October 1943 determined:

* The increase of boost pressure to 25 lbs/sq.inch provides a considerable improvement in the low altitude performance of the Spitfire IX aircraft, the necessary modifications to achieve this being comparitively simple.1

An increase of about 950 ft/min in rate of climb and about 30 mph in all-out level speed is achieved by the increase of boost from +18 lb/sq.in. to +25 lb/sq.in.2

"Flight Tests of the North American P-51B-15 Airplane, AAF No. 43-2477 Using 44-1 Fuel" as reported by the Flight Test Engineering Branch dated 20 May 1944 states:

Conclusions

A. Operation of the airplane at 75 in. Hg. manifold pressure in low blower increased speed in level flight 16 MPH over the high speed at 67 in. Hg. manifold pressure at altitudes from sea level to 7400 ft. A 14 MPH increase was obtained at altitudes from 16,000 ft. to 20,800 ft. in high blower.

B. The rate of climb was increased 560 ft/min. from sea level to 2,200 ft. by 75 in. Hg. manifold pressure operation. At 15,700 ft. in high blower the rate of climb was increased 580 ft/min.

"Flight Tests on the P-38J Airplane, AAF No. 43-28392 Using 44-1 Fuel" as reported by the Flight Test Engineering Branch dated 5 July 1944 states:

Conclusions

A. In level flight operation a gain of 17 MPH can be obtained by increasing the allowable power from 60 to 70" Hg. (W.E.R.).

B. In climb operation a gain of 500 ft/min can be obtained by increasing the allowable power from 60 to 70" Hg.

"Flight Tests on the P-47D Airplane, AAF No. 42-26167 Using 44-1 Fuel" as reported by the Flight Test Engineering Branch dated 15 July 1944 states:

Conclusions

A. The R-2800-63 can be operated at 65.0" Hg., 2700 RPM, in level flight and climb without water injection when using 44-1 fuel. It can be operated at 70.0" Hg., 2700 RPM with water injection with 44-1 fuel. Climbs at high power must be limited because of high cylinder head temperatures and carburetor air temperatures. Short climbs can be made without dificulty.

B. A gain of 19 MPH can be realized by using 65.0" Hg., 2700 RPM over 56" Hg., 2700 RPM. 8 MPH can be gained at 65.0" Hg. by using water injection. With water injection at 70.0" Hg., 2700 RPM, 7 MPH can be gained over 65.0" Hg., 2700, water injection.

C. In climb operation a gain of 510 ft/min. by using 65.0" Hg., 2700 RPM over 56.0" Hg., 2700 RPM can be realized. 410 ft/min can be gained at 65.0" Hg., 2700 RPM using wate injection. No 70.0" Hg. climbs were made.

[bf109 emil]

the best score for what an increase in octane did for speed is measured during the V-1 threat and how 150 octane increased these planes ability using an increase in boost of manifold pressure as a direct increase in horsepower and speed

The increased performance obtained with 150 Grade Fuel was put to good use by Mustangs, Tempests and Spitfires in intercepting Buzz Bombs launched against Britain beginning mid June. Performance increases at sea level were as follows
............130 Grade ......................150 Grade
Spitfire IX 335 mph..........................358 mph +25 lb
Spitfire XIV.359 mph.........................366 mph +21 lb
Tempest V ..372 mph .......................386 mph +11 lb
Mustang III (V-1650-3)..360 mph............390 mph +25 lb

http://www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org/ ... -fuel.html
the begining of US aviation fuel by doolittle

Fuel is rated according to its level of octane. High amounts of octane allow a powerful piston engine to burn its fuel efficiently, a quality called "anti-knock" because the engine does not misfire, or "knock." At that time, high-octane aviation gas was only a small percentage of the overall petroleum refined in the United States. Most gas had no more than an 87 octane rating. Doolittle pushed hard for the development of 100-octane fuel (commonly called Aviation Gasoline or AvGas) and convinced Shell to begin manufacturing it, to stockpile the chemicals necessary to make more, and to modify its refineries to make mass production of high-octane fuel possible. As a result, when the United States entered the war in late 1941, it had plenty of high-quality fuel for its engines, and its aircraft engines performed better than similarly sized engines in the German Luftwaffe's airplanes. Engine designers were also encouraged by the existence of high-performance fuels to develop even higher-performance engines for aircraft.

http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay ... Tech21.htm

[bf109 emil]

Phylo Roadking wrote'
The design process is actually the other way round - fuels are developed to make the best of engine developments - turbosuperchargers, engine-driven superchargers...and in turn those engines have to be designed to BE blown. Therefore to make the best of high-octane fuels, engines and their ancilliary inlet systems have to be designed to NEED them

here is a conclussion on the value of improvement in fuels in relation to horsepower...albeit yes the technology of superchargers allowed the engine to make power but without the proper fuel, there'd have been a lot of spent engines resulting from detonation from poor quality of fuel

Poor-grade fuels avoided knock but produced little power. Soon after World War I, an American chemist, Thomas Midgely, determined that small quantities of a suitable chemical added to high-grade gasoline might help it burn without knock. He tried a number of additives and found that the best was tetraethyl lead. The U.S. Army began experiments with leaded aviation fuel as early as 1922; the Navy adopted it for its carrier-based aircraft in 1926. Leaded gasoline became standard as a high-test fuel, used widely in automobiles as well as in aircraft.

Leaded gas improved an aircraft engine's performance by enabling it to use a supercharger more effectively while using less fuel. The results were spectacular. The best engine of World War I, the Liberty, developed 400 horsepower (300 kilowatts). In World War II, Britain's Merlin engine was about the same size—and put out 2,200 horsepower (1,640 kilowatts). Samuel Heron, a long-time leader in the development of aircraft engines and fuels, writes that "it is probably true that about half the gain in power was due to fuel."

http://www.century-of-flight.net/Aviati ... engine.htm