By James Schultz

A drinkable cocktail it’s not. But the concoction of some 300 different chemicals swirling in your car’s gasoline tank is as meticulously blended as is any fine liquor. Not all libations are created equal, however. What if you could create from scratch the fossil-fuel equivalent of a fine, single-malt scotch or a brandy or a hearty dinner wine or the perfect post-meal liqueur?

Where gasoline is concerned, new blends can be more valuable than even the oldest bottle cached in the cellar. Innovative formulations can reduce vehicle emissions, increase mileage, even afford protection against inevitable engine wear. For refiners and auto makers worried about pending, stringent new restrictions on the amount and quality of air pollutants, a new formula — particularly one that leads to clean-burning gasoline — would likely be worth millions in profits and more in public good will.

John Cooper, assistant professor in Old Dominion University’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, believes he’s found a way to hasten that day.

Cooper, intrigued by the challenge presented by the analysis of gasoline’s complex chemical interactions, became convinced he could monitor moment-by-moment changes in gasoline as they occurred. Essential to the process would be a new generation of small, powerful lasers that would employ a technique first identified nearly 70 years ago. Researchers wouldn’t have to wait for accurate results for hours, perhaps days, using less precise sampling techniques. Cooper’s system would produce accurate data in a matter of seconds.

“If you want to measure gasoline composition in real time, you need to measure the properties you’re interested in,” Cooper explains. “It’s a very complex problem. There are a lot of problems to solve.”

No Foregone Conclusions

Cooper’s initial proposal, made to the Petroleum Research Foundation in 1994, was rejected as unfeasible and undoable by a panel of technical experts. Cooper and several of his graduate students nevertheless persevered. Shortly thereafter, the venture attracted the attention of oil-refining company Ashland Inc., which agreed to underwrite Cooper’s research.

Cooper went on to solve the outstanding technical issues, creating a device that can accurately track gasoline’s precise chemical makeup, octane number and vapor pressure. Old Dominion now holds four patents on the invention jointly with Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC, and has granted a licensing agreement to a manufacturing company to build a commercial version of Cooper’s brainchild.

“At first, no one thought we could do it,” Cooper says. “But every objection was answered with novel techniques that led directly to patents. We were at the right place at the right time — and we realized we were there.”

Key to Cooper’s success was the use of a procedure known as Raman spectroscopy, named after researcher C.V. Raman. In 1928, Raman discovered that the interaction of the light-emitting particle, known as a photon, with an organic molecule momentarily raises that molecule’s energy state. Once the photon is released, the molecule returns to its original state.

Given the light energy required to first create the effect and then to monitor it, Cooper’s innovation wouldn’t have been possible without the invention of lasers. Other enabling technologies, such as microelectronics and new generations of fast computers, were also required.

Despite the availability of new technology, the development of a Raman-based gasoline analyzer was not a foregone conclusion. Cooper and his team confronted a number of vexing technical issues, not the least of which was the tendency of hydrocarbons to fluoresce in the presence of laser light. Although Cooper was able to correct for this limitation, he points out that technological excellence is no guarantee that the gasoline analyzer will be a hit in the marketplace.

“We’ve demonstrated the technology,” Cooper says. “Ours offers a lot of significant advantages. But I don’t know if it will make it into the mainstream. You always have a channel to cross: the point at which industry accepts it and it becomes widespread commercially.”

Real Tough Stuff

Cooper’s involvement with laser-based chemical analysis is not just limited to examinations of the liquid variety. Cooper and his research team are also helping NASA examine the structural properties of thermoset polymers: plastics that, when heated, form a strong solid and can themselves endure very high temperatures for long periods of time. Thermosets are already playing a limited role as components of certain external pieces of airplanes, such as tail assemblies, rudders and ailerons. Other space-age applications could lead to new generations of superlight, superstrong airplanes that fly farther, faster and more economically than can today’s models.

But because thermosets radiate heat as they themselves are heated, the possibilities for widespread structural failure are also great. Cooper is examining ways to validate a thermoset’s strength. “In the center it gets very hot — heat that doesn’t dissipate easily,” he explains. “You start to get thermal stresses forming. It can pose a structural problem if it’s not properly managed in the construction process.”

As with his gasoline work, Cooper is using a sophisticated laser-based process to analyze thermoset properties. Laser light, funneled through optical fiber, strikes the target material and is scattered by it. The light scattering is “read” by sensitive detectors, which essentially produce a unique chemical fingerprint. Researchers are able to follow the chemical reaction as that reaction changes over time in response to heating. Areas of greatest activity suggest points of weakness that should be strengthened.

These and similar challenges, Cooper says, are difficult to master. They require creativity, a desire to innovate and a refusal to accept conventional means of problem-solving. Yet the rewards are many, not the least of which is unearthing solutions thought improbable, if not impossible.

“This is the end of the century,” Cooper says. “All the easy stuff has been done. What’s left on the table is the real tough stuff.”