V-Power - Hmmmm.....

[Schwepps]

yo mnas, you're not off topic! This thread is helping us laymen to understand the petrols available to us. Since you're an ex-oilman, would it be right to say that the base petrol is the same for 92, 95 and 97 Ron, and the only difference is the MTBE and other additives added at the point of distribution? And that the only different formulation is V-Power, hence the different pricing?

 

[wc9922]

MTBE was the choice octane booster or oxygenate for gasoline runs by refiners in the late 80's and 90's. Same with ETBE. Nowadays, refiners in the developed nations are not adding MTBE into the gasoline anymore as they found out about the health hazards. I think EPA has a ban on it.

Have a look at the Material Safety Datasheet (MSDS) for MTBE and u will find the health hazards it poses. I think we in this part of the world has not yet fully stopped this practice. MTBE has other industrial uses as a specialty chemical besides capable of being a gasoline oxygenates.

 

[Schwepps]

That's a high octane avatar, wc! Not a health hazard too?

 

[mnas]

yup, i can't agree any further that the base petrol is similar for all the designated RON. it's the amount of oxygenate/additives that makes up the RON...e.g. MTBE / TAME / ETBE or even ethanol.

i remember that even when producing MTBE, we nvr produced less than 99.0% purity (rest being benzene and others). there is no advantage for manufacturer to produce 99.9% purity as it increases processing cost...bare minimum is the way..unless consumer is willing to pay. there used to be RON 100 (Techron 100 by Caltex) in S'pore some years back, but it was discontinued quite shortly after that.

 

[wc9922]

yup, i can't agree any further that the base petrol is similar for all the designated RON. it's the amount of oxygenate/additives that makes up the RON...e.g. MTBE / TAME / ETBE or even ethanol.

i remember that even when producing MTBE, we nvr produced less than 99.0% purity (rest being benzene and others). there is no advantage for manufacturer to produce 99.9% purity as it increases processing cost...bare minimum is the way..unless consumer is willing to pay. there used to be RON 100 (Techron 100 by Caltex) in S'pore some years back, but it was discontinued quite shortly after that.

Good technical info.

 

[wc9922]

That's a high octane avatar, wc! Not a health hazard too?

How can u complain if you have something like that? Not like rokok, this cannot 'merbahayakan kesihatan':top:

 

[lozo]

something i would like to share about vpower

http://protonmania.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=586e166a705b15ae6a85f7fb864c3817&topic=33127.0

 

[Schwepps]

Hahahaha! Oh puhh-lese! That guy needs to go back to school and attend basic chemistry class again. :stupid:

Ethanol-mix fuels are only viable in certain countries. Our arable land is way too precious to grow sugarcane or corn. As for Singapore where our V-Power stock is produced, is there ANY agricultural land at all? Perhaps that guy needs to attend basic geography class too.

BTW, some facts about ethanol for general info. It has a poor energy balance (1 energy unit of fossil fuel to produce 1.3 energy units of ethanol), carbon dioxide and ozone are produced during the production process, and nitrous oxides are produced when it's burned. There are also macro issues against - using food-arable land to produce fuel and therefore raising the price of food worldwide is not socio-economically acceptable.

 

[B33mEr]

Ethanol too has a higher octane rating (RON 115 if i'm not mistaken) and i think the point he's trying to make is that by adding ethanol one could increase the octane rating by a notch or two and in this case V-Power by Shell... Plus ethanol can easily be sourced from neighbouring country's ....
Koenigsegg CCXR is a 1050 bhp supercar that runs only on bio-ethanol

 

[Schwepps]

i don't know where you got that point in his post. The only point he made is that he thinks he's extracted ethanol from V-Power by shaking it with mineral water! Yes, Thailand and China are piloting ethanol-mix fuels, but to source ethanol from neighbouring countries would probably kick the energy balance below parity.

 

[B33mEr]

Hehehe ... let me rephrase what i just said ... his point is that Shell added ethanol in V-Power to notch up the RON factor in the fuel Thus by adding water to the mix and shake the content rigorously you can see the separation of of water, petroleum and ethanol ... but i also don't know whether his test are valid or not :stupid: but i do see his point cos ethanol does have a higher RON ratings and it juts might be possible that Shell added ethanol to achieve higher RON ratings

 

[Schwepps]

B33mEr, the answers are no on all counts. His backyard test is not valid, our V-Power does not have a higher RON rating than Super, and it is not an ethanol-mix fuel.

 

[wc9922]

B33mEr, the answers are no on all counts. His backyard test is not valid, our V-Power does not have a higher RON rating than Super, and it is not an ethanol-mix fuel.

Wah, sudah expert.............

 

[astroboy]

...probably added with some "ego"..

 

[Schwepps]

Heyy!!! I'm just a big fan of V-Power and I believe mis-information needs to be corrected, astro. BTW, the sifu with the rearview avatar taught me all I know about this great fuel.

 

[glock_8]

so how bout in singapore? does they have the ron100 v power?

 

[infinityKL]

they only had techron ron 100 sometime ago if im not mistaken... now no more.

Vpower rocks... now cheap sumore... but for some reason it doesnt work well on alfa's...

 

[astroboy]

I see there are different feedback from different V-Power users. Some say good, some say no different, some say more economical to run, some say "..just try it and u'll love it".

I tested it on my 1.3 mini MPV which is running 10.0:1 compression and don't find anything to shout about.. have not on the 4-pot E90 though.. but skeptical about it..

If there's any good about this V-Power, I think it has nothing to do with RON rating because RON rating is just a measurement of knocking index, the higher the RON, the more stable the fuel, costlier fuel. The higher the compression, the higher RON we need to avoid knocking, which is premature combustion... and that's all RON is about.

So if a vehicle with recommended RON 92, using a RON 100 should not give additional benefit but waste of money.

Anyone done dyno test using the regular vs V-Power? Any HP or torque boost? or higher efficiency combustion? lower carbon emission?

 

[infinityKL]

astro, we dyno ourselves after some Vodka-Power at TSB la, long time no see ald... cheers

 

[astroboy]

Oi! Sexy-lan, after the Vodka, car also cannot find la, they all look alike..