Disposing of old petrol (or diesel for that matter)

There being many videos on youtube to illustrate this fact. This being particularly spectacular, but I do suspect that you need fairly special weather conditions for this.

That is almost identical to what I did.

low wind and a warm day is all it takes

Note how far the vapour has spread...I was going to throw a lit match at it...

Orgreave is in Rotherham.

It's where Mrs Thatcher destroyed the miners who were on strike using the Met police and making up the rules as she went along and getting the police to lie about what they had done.

The trees are in Sheffield and there is a court injunction against everyone in the world from stopping them cutting them down.

Yup, I wouldn't like to try that one at all!

On the other hand, I have heard of the armed forces using a tin can, with holes punched in for air and filled with sand to burn petrol for cooking or making a brew.

SteveW

As others have said, perhaps not the best plan for a diesel.

I have read that after a few years petrol should no longer be used even in lawn mowers. Volatile fractions evaporating, gums and varnishes forming etc. There is only a small amount in the can so plenty of opportunity for stuff to evaporate.

The only petrol powered device I have (that works) is a little Honda generator and I have a full can of fresh petrol for that so I don't see any benefit in feeding old petrol (which may even have 2 stroke added - no idea how long I have had it) through it just to save a few pence.

I don't run it very often so I will have enough problems feeding the new stuff through.

Burning at arms length or just evaporating seems favourite. No plans to lose my eyebrows.

Cheers

Dave R

Darned if I haven't just found another one.

This time in a red plastic 5 litre can so presumably dating back to the time of leaded petrol (I am assuming that is when they started flogging green cans for unleaded).

Cheers

Dave R

political

marchers)

There was also a rally/demostration in Sheffield on the 31st Oct to mark 12 months since the Government said no enquiry into the events at Orgreave.

Ta, the use of the words "persons unknown" in the injunction is deeply worrying. That could keep the lawyers in gravy for years, should some one appear to be breaking the injunction but is wearing a badge with their name/address on they can't be "persons unknown"...

And reading between the lines it looks like the Council agreed a contract somewhere with excessive penalty clauses if the "Streets Ahead" work overruns.

Have you actually tried this? My experience is that if you do something like that you create a cloud of evaporated petrol in the air as you pour an d when you strike the match there is an enormous boomph! Maybe it depends on how hot and still the air is as you pour. It is not a constrained explo sion but it is, nevertheless, rather like what those MOAB bombs do isn't it ?

Robert

Probably the term you want is a deflagration. All to do with speed of the flame front and whether it travels faster than the speed of sound.

I might well be wrong, but I think MOABs use a double explosion, the first to disperse the fuel and the second to detonate it - with the wave front propogating, and continuing to burn at the leading edge, at the speed of sound or greater. Hence a detonation.

The difference between a fireball and demolishing half your house with a few pints of petrol :)

SteveW

Petrol vapour is a bit heavier than air, so it will run downhill and collect in hollows. If you just pour a litre of old petrol into a saucepan and light it seconds later then not much vapour will get out and it won't travel far. If it's a warm day the vapour will form faster, if it's a still day the vapour will collect more. Pour petrol onto an unlit bonfire and you provide it with a massive wick so there's a lot more vapour and nothing to constrain it. I'd still use a rag on a broomstick to light the saucepan, just in case, although "stale" petrol will have lost some of the lighter fractions through evaporation so will be less volatile anyway.

I'd endorse the broomstick recommendation. Arms' length is Not Enough. From experience.

replying to rmlaws54, Iggy wrote: Yep, at least a half dozen times, from a few mm's to a tennis ball deep. I've put the pan on the ground, a patio, logs, bricks and cinder blocks. I've done it by throwing a match, a lit cloth, a lit napkin, a lit ball of newspaper, and even a Bic lighter held below the pan's edge. No big deal at all and just a momentary WOOF as the pool caught. This place is just full of babies and fools. I've even smoked while filling my car and mower cans, just to amaze the sea of idiots known as society.

neither is a broomstick. I was 10 feet away crouching down striking a match....

Liar.

Let us know when you do that next, would you? So we can either stay far away or perhaps empty fire extinguishers all over you for being a twerp.

replying to Tim Streater, Iggy wrote: I'll save both of us the trouble, know nothing crybaby. Lighting a bowl of gasoline on fire

replying to The Natural Philosopher, Iggy wrote: Not that truth and proof matters to a fraud like you, but enjoy. Movie Myth: Cigarettes and Gasoline!

replying to Rob Morley, Iggy wrote: You might enjoy this Lighting a bowl of gasoline on fire

I wonder if there's any chance if with a suitable wind he might have got away with it. I guess youtube could answer that. The answer might not be pleasant though.

NT