POLYMERS AS ADDITIVES FOR FUELS

The use of copolymers obtainable by - in a first reaction step (I) copolymerizing (A) at least one ethylenically unsaturated mono- or dicarboxylic acid or derivatives thereof, preferably a dicarboxylic acid, (B) at least one a-olefin having from at least 12 up to and including 30 carbon atoms, (C) optionally at least one further aliphatic or cycloaliphatic olefin which has at least 4 carbon atoms and is different than (B) and (D) optionally one or more further copolymerizable monomers other than monomers (A), (B) and (C), selected from the group consisting of (Da) vinyl esters, (Db) vinyl ethers, (Dc) (meth)acrylic esters of alcohols having at least 5 carbon atoms, (Dd) allyl alcohols or ethers thereof, (De) N-vinyl compounds selected from the group consisting of vinyl compounds of heterocycles containing at least one nitrogen atom, N-vinylamides or N- vinyllactams, (Df) ethylenically unsaturated aromatics, (Dg) a,�-ethylenically unsaturated nitriles, (Dh) (meth)acrylamides and (Di) allylamines, followed by - in a second reaction step (II) partly reacting anhydride or carboxylic acid functionalities present in the copolymer obtained from (I) with at least one compound (E) comprising at least one alcohol group and/or at least one amino group, and - in a third reaction step (III) hydrolyzing the anhydride functionalities present in the copolymer obtained from (II) and/or partly hydrolyzing carboxylic ester functionalities present in the copolymer obtained from (II), as diesel fuel additive. (No suitable figure)