FAQs
FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Question: 
How much lubricant is in a barrel of crude oil?

Answer:
0.5 gal
(A 42 gal of crude oil can make an average of 44.2 gal of products and very little of it is lubricant.)
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Question: 
What is ethanol?

Answer:
Ethanol, or ethyl alcohol, has the chemical formula C2H5OH. It is the same alcohol found in alcoholic beverages, but ethanol also makes an effective motor fuel. There have been decades of motor fuel application experience in the United States and other countries with ethanol.
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Question:
How is ethanol being used as transportation fuel?

Answer:
Most ethanol used for fuel is being blended into gasoline at concentrations of 5 to 10 percent. In California, ethanol has replaced methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) as a gasoline component. More than 95 percent of the gasoline supplied in the state today contains 6 percent ethanol. There is a small but growing market for E85 fuel (85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline) for use in flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs), several million of which have been produced by U.S. automakers. But E85 is primarily found in the Midwest in corn-producing states. Ethanol is also being used to formulate a blend with diesel fuel, known as "E-Diesel", and as a replacement for leaded aviation gasoline in small aircraft.
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Question:
What are ethanol's characteristics as a motor fuel?

Answer:
Ethanol has a lower energy content than gasoline. That means that about one-third more ethanol is required to travel the same distance as on gasoline. But other ethanol fuel characteristics, including a high octane rating, result in increased engine efficiency and performance.
The 15 percent gasoline used to formulate E85 is to assure cold weather engine starting and to enhance flame luminosity in case of fire. In low-percentage blends with gasoline, ethanol results in increased vapor pressure, which can be adjusted for in the fuel formulation process and/or controlled with on-board vehicle systems. All gasoline vehicles in use in the U.S. today can accept gasoline blended with up to 10 percent ethanol (sometimes called gasohol). Flexible Fuel Vehicles (VVFs) are cars and trucks that can use any level of ethanol up to 85 percent. They're built with special fuel system components designed to be compatible with higher ethanol concentrations.
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Question:
What are the economics of ethanol compared to gasoline?

Answer:
The cost of producing ethanol remains significantly higher than the cost of producing fuels from petroleum. The federal government, since 1978, has given tax incentives intended to make ethanol competitive with gasoline in the motor fuel marketplace. Continued progress with both conventional and advanced ethanol production technologies could someday result in ethanol production costs competitive with petroleum fuels.
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Question: 
With the price is fuel rising daily, how can I get better gas mileage?

Answer:
Here are five tips that can help you drive more efficiently:
  1. Drive Sensibly: Aggressive driving (speeding, rapid acceleration and braking) wastes gas. It can lower your gas mileage by 33 percent at highway speeds and by 5 percent around town. Sensible driving is safer for you and others, so you may save more than gas money. 

2. Observe the Speed Limit: While each vehicle reaches its optimal fuel economy at a different speed (or range of speeds), gas mileage usually decreases rapidly at speeds above 60 mph. You can assume that each 5 mph you drive over 60 mph is like paying an additional $0.27 per gallon for gas. Observing the speed limit is safer. 
 3. Remove Excess Weight: Avoid keeping unnecessary items in your vehicle, especially heavy ones. An extra 100 pounds in your vehicle could reduce your MPG by up to 2 percent. The reduction is based on the percentage of extra weight relative to the vehicle's weight and affects smaller vehicles more than larger ones.
4. Use Cruise Control: Using cruise control on highways helps you maintain a constant speed and, in most cases, saves gas and money
5. Use Overdrive Gears: When you use overdrive gearing, your car's engine speed goes down. This saves gas and reduces engine wear.
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Question: 
Does gas have an expiration date?

Answer:
In general, gasoline should be used within a month of purchase. When the engine will not be used for an extended period of time, it’s best to drain the fuel tank and then run the engine until it stalls. If you choose to store gasoline, keep it in a very nearly full, tightly sealed metal container in a cool environment. Be sure to leave some room in the container to allow for some expansion. Under these conditions, the gasoline can be expected to remain of good quality for at least six months.
 
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Question:
What is the difference between motor oils 5W30, 10W30, 20W50 and so on?

Answer:
Let's start with understanding viscosity. Viscosity is the measure of the resistance of fluid. Water is thin having a low viscosity and honey is thick having a higher viscosity.
Your owner's manual may tell you to use SAE 5W-30 engine oil. What does this mean? SAE stands for the Society of Automotive Engineers. They have created a standard for identifying the viscosity characteristics of engine oil. The 5W-30 part of the symbol is actually just a name. The W part of the name is an indicator of low temperature viscosity properties while the 30 part of the name is an indicator of the high temperature or operating viscosity properties. The numbers are just relative indicators to help the consumer. In other words, a 5W oil does not have a viscosity of 5, nor does a 30 weight oil have a viscosity of 30. What the numbers do mean is that the viscosity characteristics of a 5W oil are lower than that of a 10W oil. As well, a 30 weight oil has lower viscosity properties than a 40 weight oil.
In a 5W-30 oil, the "W" stands for winter performance. In winter weather the 0W oil will flow like a 0W oil, and the 5W will flow like a 5W oil and a 10W will flow like a 10W oil just until the engine warms up. This multi-grade performance allows faster oil flow during cold start, however when the oil warms up, they all reach the designated 30 weight viscosity.
The best thing to do is use the appropriate viscosity for your engine and climate as recommended by the manufacturer. In general, newer vehicles will specify lower viscosity oils such as 5W-30 while older vehicles will specify higher viscosity oils such as 20W-50. This is because today's engines are built with tighter bearing clearances to take advantage of the fuel economy benefits of lower viscosity oils. It is not really a good idea to use thicker oil in one of these engines because it will disrupt the oil flow characteristics of the engine and may create excessively high oil pressure.
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Question:
What is E85 and who can use it?

Answer:
E85 is a motor fuel blended with 85 percent ethanol and just 15 percent gasoline for use in Flexible Fuel Vehicles (FFVs). E85 is a high-octane, alternative fuel as defined by the U.S. Department of Energy. Besides its superior performance characteristics, ethanol burns cleaner than gasoline; it is a completely renewable, domestic, environmentally friendly fuel that enhances the nation's economy and energy independence. 
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Question:
How many gallons of oil are in a barrel of crude oil?

Answer:
Although many people confuse crude oil with the traditional 55 gallon drum, there are 42 gallons of crude oil in a barrel.
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Question:
Do you have any tips for dispensing gas?

Answer:
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 of the 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. 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.
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Question:
What is the difference between AW and EP in gear oils?

Answer:
Anti Wear (AW) additives provides protection to reduce the friction and wear in between metal-to-metal contact. AW additives also provide boundary lubrication with the intent to reduce friction associated with wear between two surfaces.

EP (Extreme Pressure) additive, usually are used in some gear lube and greases to provide better protection. EP additives combine chemically with the metal and helps prevents welding and scoring between sliding surfaces in extreme pressure.
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Question:
How do you calculate Gallons from Inches?

Answer:
• Most 55 gallon drums are approximately 23 inches in outside diameter and 35 ¾ inches in height. 
• The one conversion that does not change is that there are 231cubic inches in a gallon.
Therefore to calculate the gallons per inch in a drum all you need to know is the inside diameter in inches. 
• Inside drum diameter is 22.6 inches, therefore the radius of the inside of the drum is 11.3 inches
- 1 gallon equals 231 cubic inches
- Pi equals 3.14 ( from geometry)
- 1 inch height in a drum equals = Pi x RADIUS x RADIUS 
~ 3.14 x 11.3 inches x 11.3 inches x 1 inch( height) = 401 CUBIC INCHES
- 401 cubic inches / 231 cubic inches = 1.73 GALLONS PER INCH 
• The only measurement you need to know to calculate the gallons per inch in a drum is the inside diameter – 22.6 inches in this example. 
• This measurement is true at 60 degree Fahrenheit. At different temperatures, technically you should  make corrections to account for any expansion or contraction of the material. 
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Question:
What is Octane?

Answer:
The octane numbers we see at the gasoline pump are an expression of the “anti-knock” properties of the gasoline as it relates to the performance in gasoline engines. The higher the octane number the better the performance of the gasoline in your car’s engine. The gasoline’s anti-knock property is determined in a lab as compared to a baseline, known blend of iso-octane with an octane rating of 100.

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