Does Fuel Quality Affect MPGs?

This the right answer. An example : in the Texas Panhandle, fuel comes Borger or Sunray refineries. Borger is clear and 7 - 7.1 lbs /gal, Sunray fuel is green and usually 6.6-6.8 (unless things have changed since I hauled fuel around there. )

Fuel consumption is based on lbs / hp*hr, so it requires more of the lighter fuel for the same energy output. Same reason winter fuel gives less mpg.

 

I used to haul fuel off the racks in Omaha and it was all the same depending on the info I entered at the rack with the order .
It's all blended for the season from the refiner but some may add additional additives at the rack ....some retailers may add products like stanadyne when the fuel is dumped but most didn't .
Fuel is fuel and at the rack it's all the same depending on the order .
Shell and BP had additives but everyone else's was the same .

 

Diesel fuel is measured in three main forms

1) Grading #1,#2 , bunker #6?

2) Cetane (ignition quality)how quickly the fuel ignites.

3) BTU content. This is the measure of the actual energy in the fuel.


The winter fuel is either blended #1 with #2 or in very cold climates, pure #1D.

#1D has much lower BTU content per gallon , therefore yields less MPG. (ENERGY needed to perform work)

A higher Cetane fuel will knock less because it burns smoother and more completely

 

There was a time when that was true. You'd know in 5 miles if you got bad fuel. I don't think that's the case today, Most places all get their fuel from the same tank farm.

 

I used TA or the old 76 often. However in Winter I depend on Petro up north. Maybe it's all the same, however I don't know hardly anything about who gets what desiel where with the exception of Exxon Baltimore Curtis Bay and North Little Rock.

I remember when they started trying to dye fuel different colors for tax purposes and the police chasing big rigs hunting for dyed fuel. But I will have to research the situation because other issues occupied my life in those days.

 

I remember, in the 80's, the truck stop by my house in L. Mills, Wis. didn't have blended fuel. They had #1 and #2, and you "blended" it yourself.

 

I also noticed here in Midwest that winter driving is causing up to 1mpg drop in MPG.
Winterized fuel has less BTU per gal due to additives. What else would be causing it to have less mpg potential? On the other hand, it will balance some of it by contracting its volume due to colder temperatures - not sure how much of it play any significant role in BTU changes. I remember a few years ago OOIDA was trying to argue the case of compensating carriers from truck stops for fuel volume expansion during hot summer temperatures but that was a daunting task and I think they gave up on it.

 

It's not the additives, winter-blend fuel has shorter carbon chains. There's less energy available in any given volume and this causes the lower MPG, along with all the other frictional effects of the lower temperature.