the daily commute's blog

some unusual gas-saving tips

Here are some ideas on a site called Petrostrategies.org, run by a company that provides consulting services for the oil and gas industry.  

These ideas are from "a 31-year industry pro who works for Kinder-Morgan Pipeline in San Jose, CA."  Not being a "31-year industry pro," I don't know how accurate these ideas are.  There seems to be a building consensus in our comments section that it's all fiction, except maybe for Number 2.  So, beware!

1. Fill up your car or truck in the morning when the temperature is still cool. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground; and the colder the ground, the denser the gasoline. When it gets warmer gasoline expands, so if you're filling up in the afternoon or in the evening, what should be a gallon is not exactly a  gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and temperature of the fuel (gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum  products) are significant. Every truckload that we load is temperature-compensated so that the indicated volume is actually the amount pumped. A one-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for businesses, but service stations don't have temperature compensation at their pumps .

2.  If a tanker truck is filling the station's tank at the time you want to buy gas, do not fill up; most likely dirt and sludge in the tank is being stirred up when gas is being delivered, and you might be  transferring that dirt from the bottom of their tank into your car's tank

3. Fill up when your gas tank is half-full (or half-empty), because  the more gas you have in your tank the less air there is and gasoline evaporates rapidly, especially when it's warm. (Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating "roof" membrane to act as a barrier between the gas and the atmosphere, thereby minimizing evaporation .)

4. If you look at the trigger you'll see that it has three delivery settings: slow, medium and high. When you're filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to the high setting. You should be pumping at the slow setting, thereby minimizing vapors created while you are pumping.  Hoses at the pump are corrugated; the corrugations act as a return path  for vapor recovery  from gas that already has been metered. If you are pumping at the high setting, the agitated gasoline contains more vapor, which is being sucked back into the underground tank so you're getting less gas for your money .

 Talk traffic with us!  Join The Daily Commute group!