Could someone please explain to me how the structures of alknaes affect their performance as fuels? I cant find anything about it on the net anywhere! :confused:

If i remmeber school correctly, its something to do with the more branches the better. or is it? uumm, and you dont want messy hydrocarbons with lots of odd stuff like sulphur and OH and COOH groups etc. Its too late to look it up today.

Well, we know that short-chain hydrocarbons burn faster (compare the explosive combustion of methane to the slow, steady burn of diesel oil). The more carbon atoms are linked together, the more atomic bonds need to be broken, so the larger alkane molecules react with oxygen more slowly - yet release more chemical energy per molecule.

(Correct me if I'm wrong - I haven't studied chemistry in nearly 12 years).