"Regular Plus" Gasoline
Coming Soon
In a couple of weeks
drivers will have
another option to fill
their vehicle's gasoline
tank: regular plus with
an octane rating of 91.
In the US and Canada it
is known as "unleaded
plus".
The president of the
state refinery, the
Refinadora Costarricense
de Petroleo (Recope),
José León Desanti,
explained that the new
gasoline will have a
higher octane rating
than regular,
which will provide
better performance.
"We expect a higher sale
of regular when the new
product is introduced",
said Desanti.
Recope officials assure
that the new gasoline
will have the same
prices as regular, which
will hit ¢721 colones
per litre on Wednesday,
when the latest round of
gasoline prices take
effect.
The Autoridad de los
Servicios Públicos (Aresep)
said it is conducting an
analysis of
international prices for
the product before it
gives its final approval
on the new type of
gasoline product.
Regular Plus with its
higher octane rating
than Regular means
better performance which
translates to better gas
mileage.
The octane rating is a
measure of the
resistance of gasoline
and other fuels to
autoignition in
spark-ignition internal
combustion engines.
High-performance engines
typically have higher
compression ratios and
are therefore more prone
to engine knocking, so
they require higher
octane fuel. A
lower-performance engine
will not generally
perform better with
high-octane fuel, since
the compression ratio is
fixed by the engine
design.
In some countries,
gasoline is sold by the
octane rating, starting
at 87 for regular,
incrementing by one
octane to 91 for the
premium.
In Costa Rica currently
there are only two types
of gasoline: regular and
super.
According to the Recope
information, its regular
gasoline has an octane
rating of 88, however,
the ethanol mixture sold
in Guanacaste and the
Central Pacific has a
rate of "around" 91. |
