Hydroxypropanone was selected as the model compound of bio-oil ketones to study its cracking behavior for bio-gasoline production. The cracking of pure hydroxypropanone generated inferior oil phase which had a content of high oxygenated compounds. The quality of oil phase was obviously improved when ethanol was adopted as the co-reactant. Furthermore, increasing cracking pressure also benefited the yield and quality of the oil phase. The conversion yield of the reactants reached 100% and the selectivity of the oil phase reached 31.9 wt.% in the co-cracking process under 400 degrees C and 2 MPa. The oil phase also had an outstanding quality with a hydrocarbon content of 100% and mainly contained hydrocarbons with carbon numbers ranging from 7 to 10, which are also important components in commercial gasoline. Based on the results, a co-cracking mechanism was proposed to illustrate the role of ethanol in promoting hydroxypropanone cracking. (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.