My nephew sent me an email about adding acetone to gas and diesel to increase MPG.

Does anyone know the truth about this rumor.

Smitty

Ever hear the adage "too many cooks spoil the broth" ?

The refinery folks do a very good job of blending hydrocarbons and fuel additives to make gasoline for the least cost and meet the various EPA requirements. Adding "stuff" just upsets the blend and changes the Reid vapor pressure, octane rating, etc. I truly can't believe one can add acetone to significantly change the gasoline and be cost effective. You would have to purchase acetone in bulk ... like thousands of gallons to get it cheap enough. The only real advantage is you're getting fuel without the highway taxes. (a significant amount... Taxes are larger than the oil company profits per gallon) And even if you did buy it in bulk, eventually the tax department will catch up to get their share of the acetone fuel.

Adding a couple of gallons or less to your tank won't hurt anything but your wallet. Acetone, like toluene (another solvent) is a normal component of gasoline

Here's a link that explains the gasoline components.

http://pubs.acs.org/cen/whatstuff/stuff/8308gasoline.html