“Petrol
is very volatile commodity and we must do all we can to protect the integrity
of the trade. With respect to the legal importation of petrol, we must ensure
its quality from ship to pump, while every effort must be made to stamp out
illicit importation of the product”
Minister of Energy
Phillip Paulwell after issueing an islandwide Petrol test of all gasolene
Service stations
The
BSJ (Bureau of Standards) Jamaica has been caught napping on the job yet again.
This time it's not sub-standard blocks as noted in my blog article
entitled “Why
Collapse due to BSJ's Faulty Block makers may occur spontaneously without an
Earthquake”.
This
as several complaints of bad gasolene have prompted islandwide testing of all
Petrol Stations as noted in the article “Petrojam
to test gas at all service stations”, published Tuesday, December 22, 2015,
The Jamaica Observer.
Minister
of Science, Technology Energy and Miming Phillip Paulwell issued this edict on
Monday December 20 2015 during an emergency meeting at the Ministry with the
BSJ, the CAC (Consumer Affairs Commission), marketing companies and service
station retailers as announced in the Press Release entitled “Energy Minister
addresses substandard petrol incidence”, published Monday December 21, 2015
by Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy & Mining, Go-Jamaica.
The
tests are being carried out by Petrojam and the BSJ after several motorists
over several weeks complained to the CAC (Consumer Affairs Commission) of
sub-standard Gasolene damaging their motor vehicles. Particularly, this
sub-standard Gasolene seems to be causing damaging to newer vehicle engines
that use direct injection mechanisms.
They're
literally working against the clock, as they have only 24 hours to test all service stations islandwide so that the service station operators who are
selling bad gasolene do not have time to drain their tanks and dump the bad
petrol. Then they have to file a report to the Ministry of Ministry of Energy
and Mining within 7 days.
So
far, there has been nothing but co-operation from the JGRA (Jamaica Gasolene
Retailers’ Association) as noted in the article “Gasolene
Retailers Welcome Gov't's Islandwide Petrol Test Order”, Published Tuesday
December 22, 2015, The Jamaica Gleaner.
So
what type of contaminant could be causing this type of damage?
Contaminant damaging
Fuel-Injector systems – Organic contaminant with dissolved solids
All
this may seem a bit strange, but quite it's logical, really, if you are a
chemistry student.
Albeit
the service station retailers are suspected of selling sub-standard gasolene,
up until this point it's basically an allegation. Thus this rapid islandwide
test isn't aimed at finding the guilty party, but determining the type of
contaminant in the gasolene as well as the source.
Petrojam
is involved as their expertise is necessary to make sure that the contaminant
isn't coming from their refinery. So this leaves us with the timeframe as aside
from preventing the guilty service station retailers from being able to dump
their gasolene, it also may be because of the type of contaminant.
This
is where a bit of chemistry comes into play. So let’s consider what we know.
A
typical fuel injector is computer controlled and uses a series of pumps and
filters to take gasolene to the fuel injectors. The first of these pumps is a
Primary Filter that removes water followed by a mechanical lift pump that
pressurizes the gasolene.
It
then pushes it towards the Main Engine fuel filter that removes solid
contaminants like sulphur a carbon before the fuel is finally fed into the
Mechanical fuel injector pump. The Mechanical fuel injector pump separates the
fuel into four distinct fuel lines and pumps it towards the fuel injectors,
with any waste fuel being filtered back to the gasolene tank.
With
this much filtration, it implies that the contaminant may have a short half
life. This is not in the radioactive sense, but in terms of its potency. It
might break down if it sits for a long time in the service station retailers'
underground storage tanks, hence the 24 hour timeframe to collect samples and
test for the contaminant.
Also
its ability to affect vehicles use fuel injectors suggests that it may be a
liquid contaminant or if solid, is soluble in gasolene. After all, it had to be
able to pass through the filters at both the service station retailers as well
as the vehicle's fuel filters to have escaped detection for so long.
Finally
its effect on fuel injector engines implies that this contaminant effect on the
engines may be due to the concentration of the contaminant in the gasolene.
Homemade Gasolene with
extra sulphur – Centrifuge and Reagents to remove sulphur
Considering
all this information, the logical occlusion is that the contaminant is an
organic liquid compound, possibly with a solid contaminant dissolved.
This
rules out water as water would sink to the bottom of your vehicles Gas tank and
most vehicles draw fuel from the bottom, which the 30 micro Primary filter
removes.
However,
the most likely contaminant could be homemade gasolene with too much sulphur,
as evidenced by the fact that persons who've reported this problem have had to
also change their fuel Main Engine fuel filter, possibly clogged with sulphur
deposits.
Homemade
gasolene is made by pyrolysis of Rubber from tyres or even plastics as
described in my blog
article entitled “How
Car Tyres and Plastics from Riverton City dump can make Diesel and Gasolene”.
However,
sulphur, a Group VI element, is soluble in such homemade gasolene, isn't so
easy to remove. It requires special reagents or additives that would have to be
reacted with the finished product to cause the sulphur to settle out as a
precipitate from the gasolene and diesel.
Then
a centrifuge would have to be used to separate gasolene, diesel, water and then
the sulphur/carbon precipitate, into separate layers, with the gasolene on top
as the lightest fraction. You would then decant the top layers, filtering them
further and throw away the bottom layer which would be full of carbon and
sulphur precipitates.
Most
persons who make homemade gasolene do not know how to make a centrifuge,
muchless how to separate the different fractions of gasolene from the diesel,
sulphur and water. So many of them merely filter it and decide to take a chance
with it in their vehicles, with negative results.
Gasolene Retailers or
motorists at fault – Dispute with Rubis may be a reason
In
short, the fault of the homemade sub-standard gasolene may lie with either the
drivers or the service station retailers.
The
drivers may be buying cheaper gasolene from persons making homemade gasolene
who are not centrifuging the gasolene or adding additives to separate the gasolene
from the other vacuum pyrolysis by-products, mainly sulphur.
It
might also be a case where the service station retailers are buying the
homemade gasolene in bulk and placing it in their underground Storage tanks.
This is totally plausible, as the service station retailers, many of whom are
members of the JGRA, may have not liked the contractual arrangements with
Rubis.
This
as Rubis had plans to introduce 1 year contracts in lieu of the regular 3 year
contracts as explained in the article “Gasolene
Retailers At Odds With Rubis Over Contractual Arrangements”, published
Sunday December 20, 2015, by Neville Graham, The Jamaica Gleaner.
The
tests being conducted jointly by Petrojam as well as BSJ will help to figure
out who is the guilt party. However, whether there will be any form of
compensation or arrests of the makers of the homemade sub-standard gasolene
remains to be seen.
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