|
|
Here in the US we depend on gasoline to fuel our vehicles. We use over 400 million gallons (400,000,000) of gas a day or about 145 billion gallons of gasoline a year (146,000,000,000). Right now there are almost 200,000,000 gas powered vehicles on our roads daily traveling a total of about 7 billion (7,000,000,000)miles.
Where does all this gas come from? Gasoline is made from crude oil. Crude Oil is the result of millions of years of nature at work. Plant and animal was covered by layer upon layer of sediment,or deposits, which, under the effects of pressure and temperature at some point becomes a combination of liquid hydrocarbons. That is a compound of hydrogen and carbon, and this becomes crude oil.
But still,where does our gasoline come from? Since crude oil is made up of several material, it is broken up or separated at refineries to make different products. We rely on these products every day and know them better by the everyday names we call them. Gasoline,petrol,home heating oil,plane fuel, are the much more common words we use to describe the products that come from crude oil.
Of all this crude oil, only about 35 percent of what we use comes from the states, the rest is imported from other oil producing countries, including Africa and The Middle East.
Here is a shorten version of the refining process. Crude oil is heated and the components of it are then separated,which is made possible because they each condense (form a gas) at different levels of heat. The different substances can then be mixed with chemicals or altered with heat and pressure to change the basic structure of the substances and change them into different kinds of fuels.
The crude oil is brought to a refinery, where it becomes gasoline. and other products. The gas is then transported through a pipeline or an oil tanker to its destination where it is put into oil trucks to be delivered to gas stations. Once there it is pumped into underground tanks which connect to the pumps for fueling vehicles.
An oil tanker is a ship that can carry up to 1.26 million barrels of gas, and the oil trucks can hold 9,000 to 10,000 gallons of gasoline.
How is the grade of gas determined? The grading is based on the amount of octane in the gasoline, and a gas station can sell one or more grades. Each vehicle owners manual will tell you what the octane rating should be for the fuel you put in your car. You should find out what grade your car needs and use that grade for your vehicle to run at its best.
Different states have different requirements for gasoline, in regard to the emissions ratings they must meet, so sometimes other ingredients are mixed with gasoline. Sometimes this is done with ethanol which burns cleaner than gasoline.
This is done to help the polution levels that have been found to harm the environment and cause health problems Do you know what your states emission regulations or how they are trying to improve the conditions in which you live?