NGO blasts ferrocene use

Indonesia’s environmental groups have called on the government to withdraw its recommendation for state oil and gas company PT Pertamina to use ferrocene as an octane booster. The Joint Committee for Leaded Gasoline Phase-Out (KPBB), a non-profit non-governmental organization (NGO), said the recommendation was a setback to the government’s commitment to reducing carbon dioxide emissions by meeting the Euro II standard for cars. Our lengthy battle to phase out leaded gasoline will come to nothing because both lead and ferrocene have detrimental effects on the environment and human health,” the committee’s coordinator, Ahmad Safrudin, told The Jakarta Post. Ahmad said the recommendation opposed the ministry’s 2005 guidelines on the unleaded gasoline program, which banned the use of metallic additives including manganese and ferrocene. Ferrocene is an organometallic chemical compound. The iron-containing deposits formed from ferrocene can form a conductive coating on the sparkplug surfaces which can lead to sparkplug failure. (January 10, 2007)