I viewed papers this morning from a shell dealer where thier pump octane was tested and had a reading of 93,3 octane thier gas had more additives than required by law. So shell gas must have something going for it.

 

15+ years working in the fuel industry...and can attest that all fuel is not the same as stated before.

I mean...yes....they are all made basically of two things...N-Heptane+Iso-octane. But some major differences lie in the refining process where different companies have different standards on filtration (very important with particulate matter) and water recovery (Hince...the water in some fuel) Some companies go so far as to "look the other way" with something called "free water" with is not collecting at the bottom of the tank but rather floating freely with the fuel.

Some of you are correct....Shell is top notch. Definitely setting a standard.

I would stay away from fuel that adds 10%ethanol.

 

In this part of the country ( and MANY if not most big cities ) must run RFG - reformulated gas - in those areas ALL GAS has 10% ethanol - It replaced MTBE in the states that have outlawed MTBE due to ground water contamination

http://www.epa.gov/ocir/hearings/tes...0ethanol%20%22

http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/p...0ethanol%20%22

I dont work in the fuel industry - My truck just burns a lot of fuel

 

We have no choice in Texas, all gas for the summer has 10% ethanol.

 

New Federal EPA requirements. All gasoline everywhere in the country will require 10% ethanol...We're stuck with it.

 

We're lucky here, pretty much all stations have ethanol and regular. Ethanol is usually about $0.05 less than regular, but recent;y there have been times when it's been as much as $0.10 more expensive.

But I agree that ethanol isn't that great. I went for it whole heartedly at first simply because it was cheaper per gallon, but after doing some experimenting, it ends up that regular is a few cents cheaper per mile than ethanol, even when it's cheaper because of the increased mileage I get with regular.

Oddly though, the difference isn't even noticeable in my wifes V6 Amigo. It's a 2000 so maybe there's better technology for burning ethanol in it than my truck and I've read blurbs about smaller engines burning ethanol better than big ones.

 

Yea...I think it sucks Bascially....it is a way for gas companies to spend less by "substituting" this for fuel. But is has less BTU than fuel and they (gas companies) claim that it improves octane rating by 2/3 points (still haven't seen this proof). But...yes....it IS here to stay.

But...you can still find "some" that carry fuel without ethanol.

 

Yes it bumps up the octane but the gas companies lowered the octane rating of the "base" gas so the ethonol just brings the base back up to 87,89 or 93 like its supposed to be.
As for the additives, they are mixed/injected in at the loading rack while being pumped into the tanker truck. Weather it is a shell truck or an outside carrier at a shell station it has shell gas.

 

Yup....most use a Hammonds injector to mix the stuff. The base here has contracted with BP for fuel. Don't usually use them....unless I have to.