§ Mr. Skeetasked the Secretary of State for Industry whether his Department has found any difficulties using methyl tertiary butyl ether as an additive to petrol in replacement of tetra ethyl and tetra methyl lead; and what effect the new additive is likely to have on engine performance.
§ Mr. MacGregorThe Department is aware of the work being carried out by the petroleum refinery industry and accept that methyl tertiary butyl ether can be used as an alternative to lead-based products as an octane number boosting additive to petrol at some extra cost.
The main difficulty is that MTBE lacks lubricating quality and therefore hard material exhaust valve seats are required to avoid excessive engine wear. As with lead products, the adverse emission and pollution effects have not been fully assessed.