Do You Avoid Buying Gas When...

[Jim Koepke]

My truck runs on diesel, only one grade of that at most stations.

I have found different varieties and claims at different stations.

Have found stations that carry 100% biodiesel, some with pure fossil diesel and most contain 5-15% biodiesel.

jtk

[Bill George]

Interesting read also about gasoline, so Premium gas is created at the Refinery, not by putting in additives at the station or terminal. It also explains Octane in detail.
https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/gasoline/

[Jim Becker]

A engine designed to run premium gas does indeed develop more power on premium than on lower octane gas,

Exactly what I said.

[Ronald Blue]

Interesting read also about gasoline, so Premium gas is created at the Refinery, not by putting in additives at the station or terminal. It also explains Octane in detail.
https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/gasoline/

The way I read it and how I have always understood it is it is all blended at the distribution point. This says the additives are blended at the terminal. From your link.

Petroleum refineries mostly produce gasoline blending components called gasoline blendstocks, which require blending with other liquids to make finished motor gasoline. Most finished motor gasoline is produced at blending terminals, where gasoline blendstocks, finished gasoline, and fuel ethanol are blended to produce finished motor gasoline in different grades and formulations.

[Bill George]

The way I read it and how I have always understood it is it is all blended at the distribution point. This says the additives are blended at the terminal. From your link.

Petroleum refineries mostly produce gasoline blending components called gasoline blendstocks, which require blending with other liquids to make finished motor gasoline. Most finished motor gasoline is produced at blending terminals, where gasoline blendstocks, finished gasoline, and fuel ethanol are blended to produce finished motor gasoline in different grades and formulations.

Also from that Link and it was hard to find, but refineries produce 3 grades of gasoline regular, premium and aviation grades. The mid grade is made by blending regular and premium and other additives: The octane level of gasoline indicates its resistance to combustion. Gasoline with a higher octane level is less prone to pre-ignition and detonation, also known as engine knocking. Refiners charge more for higher-octane fuel, and premium-grade gasoline is the most expensive.

[Malcolm McLeod]

I donÂ’t drive F1 cars, so will leave the octane debate to those that do….

I do know a bit about the distribution infrastructure that may surprise some…. 10 or 6 refineries (say in Corpus Christi) will pump their own batch of fuel into the same pipeline. The pipeline is just about 100% guaranteed to be owned by a pipeline utility, not the refiners. Reasons for the ownership change are myriad, but chief among them is due to utilities being regulated by totally different G-men than the refiners G-men. The shared infrastructure obviously keeps costs down for everyone and, gloriously, reduces the eminent domain cases required by running 10 or 6 parallel pipelines across the country.

That pipeline runs to a terminal in Dallas (for instance, but with likely a myriad of branch lines too). If refiner A puts in 100,000gal, they can sell ‘someones’ 100,000gal to a retailer at the terminal. There is no guarantee that the same physical liquid they put in is what they sell. The fuel that each refiner puts into the pipe must meet an agreed to specification, so it really doesn’t matter who made it. …A bit like electricity in a distribution power line??

In many cases, there can be a spec break (big change) in product going into a pipeline. Often nothing is done: the difference in grade may be small enough that any ‘mixing’ that occurs in transiting the pipeline can be ignored. 100,000Gal of 83octane was chased by 100,000gal of 97octane (octane change being a bad analogy, but you get the idea. Right?). The first 100,000gal goes in 1 receiving tank, and the next 100,000gal goes in another. Perhaps 1000gal was ‘mixed’ and it doesn’t matter what tank it goes in. In some cases, say 83octane gas followed by diesel, the pipeline operator will pump the gasoline, then launch a pig to physically separate the two products and ‘wipe’ the pipeline walls as well… (some small amount of mixing still occurs). But it is all fuel, and as repeatedly alluded to above, nearly any engine can burn it with negligible impact. Pigs are semi-rigid balls or torpedoes that match the pipe’s ID and just get pushed along by the liquid, with launch and recovery mechanisms at each end of the pipe.

Generally, the retailer’s additives are injected into the tank truck’s load out for subsequent delivery to a specific station or chain. But a local ‘name’ retailer CAN sell anyone’s gasoline (and additives) … they simply have to be cognizant of false advertising claims (ala ‘additives’) or getting caught. They license the corporate name, but are none are corporate owned (as mentioned earlier). Again, your friends and neighbors selling what they want for the price they want.

[Bill George]

Malcolm thanks for that information. I was not aware of the "pigs" I thought is was some sort of dye or other marker. I have been working at the Williams Bros Pipeline here in Des Moines and saw those additives being dumped into a tanker truck.

[Ken Combs]

Remember DriGas, Heet, and other additives to prevent gas line freeze up? They were just alcohol, and mixed with the water, prevented freezing and most important, allowed the mix to burn without causing a problem.

Most gas today has 10-15% alcohol already. So water in the gas is almost never an issue, no matter whether the truck delivered it or stirred it up. All the stations in my area have filters in the delivery hose. And then there are the filters in every car/truck gas line.

At one time there were lots of old gas stations with less than stellar tank and pump systems. I am old enough to have worked in a couple of those. And, sold the additives mentioned earlier.


Thankfully those are gone, along with my worry about getting 'bad gas' on a fill up.

[Ronald Blue]

In reference to the "pig" that Malcom mentioned. I drove by this company many times while I was still working.

https://www.plcpigs.com/index.html