Petrochemical Fuels, Their Uses, Facts and Myths.

There is an email that has been circulating around the web that implores readers to fill their gas tanks early in the morning while using the slowest setting on the pump. The reasons that it gives for doing so are false. As an informed worker in the transportation field, it is incumbent upon me to set the record straight regarding these myths.

This email has been circulating for some time. While the temperature component of delivered gasoline or other aliphatic hydrocarbon fuels via a closed pipeline system is true, the low vapor pressure and high volatility of gasoline does not account for significant losses when fueling your car at the pump regardless of pumping speed. Moreover, most pumps are calibrated with a temperature compensation component.

Not all pumps have vapor collection and return on them. Only newer pumps in certain areas that mandate them do. The largest contributor of gasoline vapors and other unburnt hydrocarbons in the atmosphere does not come from fueling or operating your vehicle, it actually comes from tanker truck accidents that occur while delivering fuel to gas stations or leaking underground storage tanks!

Gasoline is highly volatile but only burns within a very narrow range of vapor concentrations. Gasoline has a lower explosion limit of 1.4% by volume and an upper explosion limit of 7.6% by volume. This means that gasoline vapors mixed with atmospheric air at concentrations below 1.4% by volume will fail to ignite because the mixture is too lean, and gasoline vapors mixed with atmospheric air at concentrations above 7.6% by volume will fail to ignite because the mixture is too rich.

Gasoline is more volatile than diesel oil, Jet-A or kerosene, not only because of the base constituents, but because of the additives that are put into it. The final control of volatility is often achieved by blending with butane. The Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP) test is used to measure the volatility of gasoline. The desired volatility depends on the ambient temperature. In hot weather, gasoline components of higher molecular weight and thus lower volatility are used. In cold weather, too little volatility results in cars failing to start. This is the reason behind differing blends of gasoline for each season.

In hot weather, excessive volatility results in what is known as "vapor lock", where combustion fails to occur, because the liquid fuel has changed to a gaseous fuel in the fuel lines, rendering the fuel pump ineffective and starving the engine of fuel. This effect mainly applies to (older) camshaft-driven (engine mounted) fuel pumps, which lack a fuel return line. Vehicles with fuel injection require the fuel to be highly pressurized, to within a set range (usually an extremely narrow range). Because camshaft speed is nearly zero before the engine is started, an electric pump is used. It is located in the fuel tank so that the fuel may also cool the high-pressure pump. Pressure regulation is achieved by use of a pressure modulator that returns unused fuel to the tank. Therefore, vapor lock is almost never a problem in a (newer) vehicle with fuel injection.

In the United States, volatility is regulated in large cities to reduce the emission of unburned hydrocarbons. In many of those large cities, so-called reformulated gasoline that is less prone to evaporation, among other properties, is required. Most countries simply have a summer, winter, and perhaps intermediate limit.

Volatility standards may be relaxed (allowing more gasoline components into the atmosphere) during gasoline shortages. For example, on 31 August 2005, in response to Hurricane Katrina, the United States permitted the sale of non-reformulated gasoline in some urban areas, effectively permitting an early switch from summer to winter-grade gasoline. As mandated by EPA administrator Stephen L. Johnson, this "fuel waiver" was made effective until 15 September 2005.^[9]

Modern automobiles are also equipped with an evaporative emissions control system (called an EVAP system in automotive jargon), which collects evaporated fuel from the fuel tank in a charcoal-filled canister that is usually located inside the engine compartment while the engine is stopped and then releases the collected vapors into the engine intake for burning when the engine is running (usually only after it has reached normal operating temperature.) The evaporative emissions control system also includes a sealed gas cap to prevent vapors from escaping via the fuel filler tube. There is also a myth around "stuffing" your car with gasoline which says that the extra gasoline just evaporates into the atmosphere. As you can see, that would be an impossible thing in such a closed system. Modern vehicles with OBD-II emissions control systems will illuminate the malfunction indicator light, (MIL) "check engine" or “Service Engine Soon” light if the leak detection pump (LDP) detects a leak in the EVAP system. If the Electronic Control Unit (ECU) or Powertrain Control Module (PCM) detects a leak, it will store an OBD-II code representing either a small or a large leak, thus illuminating the MIL to indicate a failure. Some vehicles can detect whether the gas cap is incorrectly fitted, and will indicate this by illuminating a gas cap symbol on the dash.

Energy content (High and low heating value)

Gasoline contains about 35 MJ/L (9.7 kW·h/L, 132 MJ/US gal, 36.6 kWh/US gal) (higher heating value) or 13 kWh/kg. This is an average; gasoline blends differ, and therefore actual energy content varies from season to season and from batch to batch, by up to 4% more or less than the average, according to the US EPA. On average, about 19.5 US gallons (16.2 imp gal; 74 L) of gasoline are available from a 42-US-gallon (35 imp gal; 160 L) barrel of crude oil (about 46% by volume), varying due to quality of crude and grade of gasoline. The remaining residue comes off as products ranging from tar to naptha.^[10]

Below is a chart that compares the volumetric and mass energy density of some popular fuels compared with gasoline (in the rows with gross and net, they are from ^[11]):

        

Fuel type	Gross MJ/L	MJ/kg	Gross BTU/Gal (imp)	Gross BTU/Gal (U.S.)	Net BTU/Gal (U.S.)	RON
Conventional Gasoline	34.8	44.4	150,100	125,000	115,400
Autogas (LPG) (60% Propane + 40% Butane)	26.8	46				108
Ethanol	21.2	26.8	101,600	84,600	75,700	113
Methanol	17.9	19.9	77,600	64,600	56,600	123
Butanol	29.2	36.6				91-99
Gasahol	31.2		145,200	120,900	112,400	93-94
Diesel(*)	38.6	45.4	166,600	138,700	128,700	25
Biodiesel	33.3-35.7			126,200	117,100
Avgas (High-Octane Aviation Gasoline)	33.5	46.8	144,400	120,200	112,000
Jet Fuel (Kerosene Based)	35.1	43.8	151,242	125,935
Jet Fuel (Naphtha)				127,500	118,700
LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas)	25.3	~55	109,000	90,800
LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas)				91,300	83,500
Hydrogen	10.1(at 20 Kelvin)	142			130

(*) Diesel is not used in gasoline engines, so its low octane rating is not an issue; the relevant metric used for diesel engines is the cetane number because it is burned by a different process called detonation instead of the deflagration process that occurs in other internal combustion engines.

As you can see from the above chart, Ethanol (Cornahol) and Methanol (wood alcohol) have a higher octane rating (RON) than conventional gasoline (which only means that it burns hotter and cleaner) but has a significantly lower energy density as measured by both mass and volume. This lower energy density coupled with the highly corrosive effects on internal combustion engine parts makes its use as a large-scale replacement fuel for conventional gasoline very impractical without massive government subsidies, which is a hidden tax on all taxpayers. The highly corrosive effects of both Ethanol and Methanol require that it cannot be pumped through a pipeline structure; instead, it must be trucked to market further increasing costs to bring it to market. The highest energy density based on mass in order goes Hydrogen, Liquefied Natural Gas, Aviation Gas, Autogas (LPG), Diesel, and then Conventional Gasoline. What makes Hydrogen impractical is that it must be stored cryogenically to achieve the highest energy density by mass (note the temperature of 20 Kelvin in the chart).

The real tricks to adopt are maximizing your driven mile efficiencies by combining your trips and carefully planning your route for the least miles driven. Avoid excessive idling. Alter your driving habits to avoid jack-rabbit starts or excessive (hard) acceleration. Slow down gradually well in advance of intersections with traffic control devices or signs and avoid hard braking situations; this means no tailgating! Proper tire inflation and vehicle maintenance including regular oil changes will help you to control your expenditures on gasoline. Carpool when possible, and simply avoid all unnecessary driving. Beyond that, the prices we pay at the pump are primarily driven by environmental, geopolitical, and market forces that are largely beyond our individual control. How or when you fuel your vehicle is of very little consequence to how much we pay for that fuel or the efficiencies that we can achieve in the grand scheme of things.

The Middlemen

I recently had a conversation with one of my loyal customers of my communications business. They have a main office and two satellite offices, one of which uses dial tone from the main office via IP telephones on the system at the main office. They had moved this remote IP office over to another nearby building in an office park in which they own two of the several buildings. The IP phones were working just fine, that is until they experienced power problems at the new building. The IP phones went up and down several times after midnight one day and this caused the fault buffer in the phone system at the main office to quickly fill up. When the fault buffer filled up, the operating system performed a stack dump which causes a forced rebooting of the system. So the frantic service call that I received was that "Our phone system keeps going down and coming back up repeatedly".

After a few questions I surmised that tech support from the equipment manufacturer was warranted. With tech support on the phone, I had them dial into the switch and have a look at what they could find out. When they told me that the fault buffer was causing the system to reboot on account of extensions 124 and 126 going up and down repeatedly, I knew instantly what the problem was; bad power at the IP office location.

I had the maintenance person at the customer's location unplug the phones until he could procure a couple of UPS for me to put in line with them. After completing the service call, I called the customer back and explained that the real culprit was bad power.

You see, I had worked at Detroit Edison for several years as a contractor in the metering department and a few more in the communications department. I was there before and during the deregulation of the utilities industries and have made a few key observations about it all.

What was supposed to bring increased "choice and competition that would result in lower costs and better service for consumers" has in fact done neither. In fact, quite the opposite has happened. You see, Detroit Edison, which was founded by none other than Thomas Edison himself after he left Ford, used to own the entire process from start to finish. They owned the power generation, power transmission, metering and collections. But with the deregulation that was foisted upon them, they were forced to give up something. They chose to sell off the power transmission part of their enterprise to a company called ITC Holdings Inc. based in Novi, Michigan. Not that I have anything against ITC per Se, ( I actually have a cousin on my Dad's side that is a Linesman there) but having two many chefs in the kitchen spoils the stew. And now after this forced deregulation we have lousy power all over the region that regularly fries sensitive digital electronic business telephone systems. My customer experienced this firsthand a few years back.

And then there is the constant assault on our front door by all the young sales types with clipboards in hand hawking the latest and greatest way for me to purchase energy. There is one who tells me that I can shuck the evil gas company and just pay them instead and they will guarantee that my gas rates will not change for the next five years. I usually ask them if they also guarantee that if the rates should go down, would they as a middle man pass that savings along to me or other consumers? No thanks, I'll take my chances with the original supplier of my energy. And then there is the one who uses green energy as a marketing tool. Like I or anyone really stops and thinks about how the energy we use gets there as we push the button on the remote for our big screen televisions, or flip the light switch, get a cold drink out of the fridge, or make coffee or toast in the morning. Green is nothing more than a marketing tool. Ask Tipper Gore about that one, Oh, that's right she won't be a "Gore" much longer. Guess that she got fed up with the hypocrisy too.

I liked it much better when the only assault or intrusion that we had to tolerate was on the phone. That was handled easily by technology like caller ID or privacy blocker. No, now we have actual people stalking our front doors with clipboards, pens and name tags to look official that try to convince us that we are unwise to play roulette with the evil power companies on our own. We need them to moderate our prices for us because we are so busy and uneducated about the whole process. Folks, we wouldn't have a process to contend with if it wasn't for our lousy government sticking its damned nose where it does not belong; in our business, in the first place!


I feel rather sorry for those fools who carry the clipboards around. I figure that they got suckered into that job because they needed the money that badly since they probably have been out of work for so very long. But I do not feel sorry enough to abandon all reason and add another middle man into the fray between me and suppliers of the energy I use. Adding a middle man into any business transaction will only increase costs for the end consumer.

Sometimes, the wheel is just fine like it is; you don't really need to reinvent it. All it does is turn round and around regardless so why try to mess with it?

Our Fair Share

I took the time and did a little research on the Internet and found a map of gasoline and diesel taxes per state for the United States. The figures given for each state are an average for each state and include all local, state, and federal taxes. The figures given are in cents per gallon. The state of California leads the way at 67.1, then Massachusetts at 65.6, Illinois at 64.4, then New York at 60.7, then it is a tie between Indiana and Michigan at 59.4, Washington state at 55.9, Florida 51.6, Wisconsin at 51.3, Utah and Hawaii are also tied at 51, West Virginia at 50.6, North Carolina at 48.6, Maine at 48.3, Georgia at 46.5, and Ohio at 46.4.

Of course Alaska has the lowest at just 18.4 cents per gallon. All other states are between 32.4 and 48.4 cents per gallon.

Since I live and work in Michigan and I have family in Ohio I did some calculations and this is what I have discovered. Based on these taxes, driving my vehicle (assuming 16 mile per gallon average for all mile driven) for 32,000 mile driven per year I purchase 2000 gallons of gas per year, which translates into $1,188.00 taxes for road maintenance. I also figured the same miles per gallon for my Ohio relatives but they drive less miles (15,000 per year). That translates into 937.5 gallons of fuel consumed per year for a total tax of $435.

What exactly is our state and federal governments doing with all of this money. for just two people out of 200 million vehicles in our country that extrapolates to a lot of cash! This is in addition to all income, sales and property taxes. Where the heck is it all going?

Our geniuses in congress can't seem to grasp the idea that they can not have it both ways. They crater under pressure from environmental groups and introduce legislation that encourages less energy consumption. The very same energy consumption is a great source of revenue for them, so now that the legislation has had the desired effect of reducing consumption, they are scrambling to replace the lost revenue stream. They want to raise taxes again. But now they have to disguise any new taxes because voters are getting tax fatigue. Voters like you and I are wary of any new taxes. Now they are seriously tossing around the idea of raising revenue by any means. And how convenient to use the whole "green movement" and craft a "cap and trade" carbon tax for businesses. As if our businesses need to pay more tax.

The gross incompetence in our government is astounding. They are already taxing businesses into oblivion. Businesses are closing up shop, or leaving the country and taking good paying jobs with them, and these idiots want to actually increase the tax burden on business.

Here's a clue Congress; spend less, not more. Stop rescuing Wall Street and Banks. Let them fail. Save Jobs by bailing out manufacturers, and giving them tax breaks.

Obama's plan for $500 for individuals and $1,000 for couples is the smaller than the one Bush gave everyone, and it will have the same effect; NONE! People will use it to pay down debt, or save it because they are worried about losing their job next.