PETROLEUM-REFINERY TECHNOLOGY  511


By A. J. KRAEMER



 In 1932 the petroleum-refining industry of the United States, like other
industries, experienced severe distress caused by decreased demand coupled
with inability to regulate supply to market demand, which resulted in low
prices for products. Despite this unfavorable condition important engineering
and technologic advances were made, and improved products were placed on
the market.
 In the following paragraphs the changed status of petroleum refining during
the past few years is given in brief résumé. A few years ago
steadily increasing demand taxed the capacity of refineries in the United
States in spite of continued enlargements of plant equipment. Since then
a major portion of the export trade in petroleum products has been lost to
United States refiners, who formerly supplied the major portion of the world
demand for some products, for example, lubricating oils. Domestic demand
also has been reduced, temporarily' at least, and refiners in the United
States now have facilities ample to supply current demand, both domestic
and foreign, for refined products without drawing on stocks of finished products.
 The changed situation of petroleum refining in thIUnited States also is
shown by the fact that consumers now are more critical of the quality of
petroleum products and are better informed as to the essential properties
of the various products than they were in the past. There is an unmistakable
trend toward rationality in referring to the properties of petroleum products.
This change has been due almost entirely to efforts within the petroleum
industry and not to consumers' efforts. Consumers generally have done ~little
to educate themselves on the essential properties of petroleum products;
such education as has come to them has been urged upon their attention by
the petroleum industry.
 The change in requirements for automobile gasoline constitutes an outstanding
example of results obtained from a basic cooperative in
*vestigation. The fact that the essential properties of fuels for automotive
equipment are understood much more clearly and generally than formerly is
due largely to cooperative work by the petroleum industry, the automotive
industry, and the Federal Government in the Cooperative Fuel Research project
(C.F.R.). The work of the C.F.R. on distillation range and vapor pressure
of gasoline recently has been augmented by the adoption of a method for determination
of octane number. ("antiknock" rating) as a tentative standard method of
the American Society for Testing Materials. Although this cooperative project
began as an investigation of motor fuels to improve motor performance, tests
of the C.F.R. have shown definitely