this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2024
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There’s a difference between summer and winter fuel for gasoline engines in some areas. It’s usually to do with smog restrictions.
The same octane can be reached with different blends of hydrocarbons. So instead of just ‘pure’ gasoline to hit a desired octane, refineries can mix together higher and lower octane fuels to reach the same overall octane rating. This increases the amount of refinery products that can be used to blend gasoline, so it can be made more cheaply. The trade off is that it’s less pure, and most importantly for this comment - that some components of of these cheaper blends may evaporate more readily, leading to smog.
In summer, when it’s warmer, some areas mandate gasoline must meet certain standards for evaporation. In winter, those standards are decreased, because it’s cooler.
Ethanol has a relatively low evaporation point. I don’t know the specifics of the commenter’s location, but I could see ‘summer gas’ having no ethanol to meet these standards.
More info: The Vapor Rub: Summer versus Winter Gasoline Explained — Car and Driver
that's wild. is this relatively new? I used to live in the Great White North and I've only been down in Florida for 10 years
I must confess - aside from knowing there was a difference, I didn’t really know what the difference was until a few online searches yesterday.
The understanding I have is that winter/summer gas programs began in the late 1980’s.
My supposition is that they have been handled seamlessly to the point that unless you are involved in regulation or the industry, it’s relatively inconsequential to most folks. I imagine knowledge of the program’s existence is probably one of those things that people sorta ignore unless it randomly becomes a topic of conversation. (Like any number of random regulations that impact our daily lives that we just don’t think about most of the time.)
I did always wonder how they made up for the changing energy density due to temperature