The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) retained MathPro Inc. to support its consideration of the California Air Resources Board's request for a waiver of the oxygen content requirement in federal (and hence most California) reformulated gasoline (RFG).

Using our refinery modeling system (ARMS), we conducted a techno-economic analysis of refining operations in California with and without an oxygen waiver. Our analysis produced robust estimates of

• The average physical properties of the California Phase 3 RFG (CaRFG3) gasoline pools that would be produced with and without the oxygen waiver;
• The shares of ethanol-blended and non-oxygenated CaRFG3 that would be produced if the oxygen waiver were granted; and
• The oxygen content (i.e., 2.0 wt%, 2.7 wt%, or 3.5 wt%) of ethanol-blended CaRFG3 that would be produced with and without the oxygen waiver.

EPA incorporated these estimates in its technical analysis of California’s request for a waiver of the federal oxygen requirement.