Petroleum @ MindSay

A friend sent this to me.  It’s one of those “send along” emails, which I never do.  However, the tips here made sense, so here they are.  I don’t know if the person who wrote the article really works in the petroleum industry or not, but the tips make sense.  I’ve heard the one about filling up in the morning when the temperatures are cooler, but the other two were news to me.

 

 

“I don't know what you guys are paying for gasoline, but here in California we are also paying higher, up to $3.50 per gallon.

But my line of work is in petroleum for about 31 years now, so here are some tricks to get more of your money's worth for every gallon.  Here at the Kinder Morgan Pipeline where I work in San Jose, CA we deliver about 4 million gallons in a 24-hour period thru the pipeline.  One day is diesel the next day is jet fuel, and gasoline, regular and premium grades.  We have 34-storage tanks here with a total capacity of 16,800,000 gallons.

Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold.  Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground.

The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening....your gallon is not exactly a gallon.  In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role.  A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business.  But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps.

When you're filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode.  If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3) stages: low, middle, and high.  In slow mode you should be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping.  All hoses at the pump have a vapor return.  If you are pumping on the fast rate, some other liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor.  Those vapors are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you're getting less worth for your money.

One of the most important tips is to fill up when your gas tank is HALF FULL or HALF EMPTY.  The reason for this is, the more gas you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty space.  Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine.  Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof.  This roof serves as zero clearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation.

Unlike service stations, here where I work, every truck that we load is temperature compensated so that every gallon is actually the exact amount.

 

Another reminder, if there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up—most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the
bottom.

Hope this will help you get the most value for your money.”

 

 

 

Don't participate in this "Gas out" nonsense. You will only be hurting people that have very little say in what the price of gas is. Even if you don't buy gas for a week, the only person you are going to hurt is the owner of the gas stations. I'm not entirely worried about people not buying gas, but if people weren't apathetic and things like this actually worked, only people who don't deserve to suffer would, in fact, suffer.  So...

From snopes.com

• "The premise behind all these messages is inherently flawed, because consumers' not buying gasoline on one particular day doesn't affect oil companies at all. The "gas out" scheme doesn't call upon people to use less gasoline, but simply to shift their date of purchase and buy gas a day earlier or later than they usually would. The very same amount of gasoline is sold either way, so oil companies don't lose any money."

By definition, a boycott involves the doing without of something, with the renunciation of the boycotted product held up as tangible proof to those who supply the commodity that consumers are prepared to do without it unless changes are made.

•  What the "gas out" calls for isn't consumers' swearing off using or buying gasoline, even for a short time, but simply shifting their purchases by a couple of days at most. Because the "gas out" doesn't call on consumers to make a sacrifice by actually giving up something, the threat it poses is a hollow one.

An effective protest would involve something like organizing people to forswear the use of their cars on specified days, an act that could effectively demonstrate the reality of the threat that if gasoline prices stayed high, American consumers were prepared to move to carpooling and public transportation for the long term.

• Simply changing the day one buys gas, however, imparts no such threat, because nothing is being done without.

Moreover, the primary potential effect of the type of boycott proposed in the "gas out" messages is to hurt those at the very end of the oil-to-gasoline chain: the independent service station operators, who have the least say in setting gasoline prices. (Independents are at the mercy of a very volatile oil market and operate on thin profit margins, and even a single day's disruption of supply or demand can wipe out many days' worth of hard-earned profits.)

As such, the "gas out" is a punch on the nose delivered to the wrong person.

So, stop calling for a gas out.

Can you put whisky in your car?Technorati Profile

I remember watching an episode of the A-Team where B.A. (as played by Mr. T) poured a moonshiner’s distillate into the team’s signature black van after he had run the engine bone dry. Hannibal (George Peppard) was very relieved when the whisky worked just fine and the motor started right away. Unfortunately that only happens in the movies (and on TV). Most commercial whiskies are only about 100 proof and would make very poor fuel.

In case you were never told the definition of proof, 200 proof is 100% alcohol, 180 proof is 90% alcohol, etc. About the most anyone can un-comfortably drink is 100 to 120 proof. The strongest spirit I’ve ever seen for sale is 150 proof Jamaican rum. Could that be used as fuel? It would make a poor alternative, but yes.

 

Brandy might be 120 proof, or 60% alcohol, and could be used, but it would have to be a pretty warm day, or the engine already pretty hot from running previously on gasoline for it to work.

 

But make no mistake, ethanol is alcohol, but its 200 proof - absolute alcohol

 

Ethyl alcohol, or grain alcohol, is, according to the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a "clear, colorless liquid with a characteristic, agreeable odour." Ethanol has been used since prehistory as the intoxicating ingredient in alcoholic beverages. Dried residue on nine thousand year-old pots found in China imply the use of alcoholic beverages among Neolithic peoples.

 

Ethanol once served as lamp fuel in pre-Civil War United States. Automotive history mentions that it was used to power Henry Ford’s first Model T’s. What happened? As an energy source, ethanol couldn't compete with the low cost and availability of petroleum. By 1865 crude oil had been discovered in both the eastern and western United States – but there was still no demand for it anywhere. In the 1870s, when Rockefeller entered the game, the oil refineries in Cleveland were only bottling the kerosene which was sold as a cheaper alternative to whale oil. They would dump their gasoline directly into the river.

GreenField Ethanol has valuable information on their site http://www.greenfieldethanol.com/en/ethanol.html#q3

about how to convert automobiles to consume bio diesel and proper fuel mixtures for most North American cars.

Every adult has no doubt tasted really strong whisky, but unless its 200 proof, or absolute alcohol, I wouldnt recommend using it as fuel.

 

That the clear liquid they put in those Galileo thermometers is usually gasoline? Neither did we.....

Sis had hers drop from the top of her tv and now the whole house reeks of gasoline! OMG! It stinks to high heaven and I don't know what all she got the gas on. Is the whole house going up in flames? WTF!?!?

One site I looked at said their thermometers only had water in them. The next site I went to said: "The liquid inside the Galileo is clear and
contains paraffin and petroleum distillates, which are found in many household
products." Isn't that lovely? WTF? Why would you put something volitile in an object made of GLASS???

So we are now left wondering if the whole room my sister is staying in is going to spontaneously combust. I told her to take as many items that have the gas on them outside as she can. I don't know if she got it on the carpet. Her room is a mess and she doesn't let me in (even when there are books or items I want from there). If it's on the carpet, I'm figuring it's ruined. Oy!

My head hurts.

It stinks in here.

Avoid these thermometers!