Refrigerants

[Danny Barrett]

>I hayou would get smaller molecules instead of
>bigger ones.  That would increase the octane.

Not so - the previously branched molecules link together, since there are no
hydorgens to link with them. This produces longer molecules than we had
before, so lower octane. In any sort of "refining" (ie. making smaller
molecules, and also branched/cyclical ones), hydrogen is almost invariably
present in the process to prevent larger molecules from being formed.