Butane in Petrol!

raymond00001, Aug 30, 9:33pm
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/7583790/Gull-and-Customs-in-court-over-tax-rate

Wouldn't most of this evaporate quickly! Any opinions on power/economy and effet on engines. Have consumers been ripped over this also! Never used gull myself as I don't want to be party to the biofuel scam with there ethanol blends anyway.
Interesting case anyway.

usdefault, Aug 30, 9:37pm
When its mixed with propane and petrol it remains in a liquid state.

raymond00001, Aug 30, 9:52pm
Cool, so now we need to know how it affects power. This could be the next moonshine, home stils blending propane and butane into petrol tanks!

thejazzpianoma, Aug 30, 9:56pm
This dosn't surprise me. Gull have become a real disappointment in recent years. They seem to have no interest in providing communities with what they actually need.

They also don't do enough IMO to tell people what they need to know about biofuel with has put many people's safety at risk in boats and no doubt damaged many vehicles.

This sort of sneakyness has also made people think they are getting better value than they are from their fuel as they have never pointed out that you don't get the same fuel economy from their biofuel.

As much as I like competition in the market I am to the point where I wish they would fold up an move on. Like many small towns they have bought up our only local service station leaving me to drive an extra 20KM to buy suitable fuel for most of our cars and equipment. Something that irks me when there is a gas station a few hundred meters from my house.

Very disappointing.

BTW, the government already gives them a big tax break for selling this stupid biofuel rubbish as far as I am aware.

smac, Aug 30, 9:58pm
What IS the blend they sell here! It's 98 octane right! How much ethanol! Last time I tried checking the NZ info seemed muddled with the aussie info.

bellky, Aug 30, 9:59pm
Hate to agree with thejazzpianoma but yeah^.

thejazzpianoma, Aug 30, 10:15pm
Its E10 which generally means up to 10% Ethanol. As far as I am aware that's how the system works i.e E5 is 5%, E15 is 15% etc.

Replacing the high octane with this muck is part of the problem. Other countries tend to replace the low octane with biofuel which is a better system IMO as you can generally run a low octane car safely on high octane if you didn't want biofuel. This would leave us in a position to use their fuel and be fine by me.

Sadly though, I think its another case of it being all about what markets best and makes them the most money at the expense of the consumer.

I wouldn't care if they just did this in main centres where there are alternatives, that would be fine for a boutique fuel. But they seem to be deliberately targeting small towns with one petrol station, in some ways its worse than closing the petrol station down. (Because people start to risk the fuel in boats and other applications where they shouldn't)

smac, Aug 30, 11:07pm
Surely that's as much the fault of the competitors though (for not being there)!

elect70, Aug 31, 3:21am
How, butane has a boiling point well below -10 Cso has to be in sealed vessel!unless you mean injecting itwith the petrol

thejazzpianoma, Aug 31, 3:28am
I see your point but I disagree. I think its a case of these towns only having enough business to support one provider. Its possible that the big boys don't mind too much losing these area's to Gull but I think if Gull was gone they would return.

After all, these are not usually new installations but ones that Gull has bought up (leased, contracted to or however it works with Gull)

The trouble is consumers are not generally savy enough on mass to realise they are damaging their vehicles or risking their lives on the water with Gulls fuel. If people were awake they could easily change the economics of the situation and likely persuade Gull to provide appropriate products for the market.

bitsy_boffin, Aug 31, 4:53am
Butane is regularly used as part of the petrol mix in other countries (well, at least the US) depending on season.

http://www.adventuresinenergy.org/Refining-Oil/Blending_vapor.html

When part of a compound, you can't simply consider the boiling point of one component alone.You can observe that in your own home, compare the boiling (and freezing) points of pure water, and water containing a high quantity of totally dissolved salt, you will find them quite different.