southern boating

Let’s get a few basic facts down before

we open up the fuel fi ll and dump some

mystic conditioning brew into our tanks.

Oil, the result of the detritus of once-

living organisms, spent millions of years

“cooking” under intense pressure beneath

both land and sea. Fast-forward a few

thousand millennia to when the fi rst oil well

fi nally popped the cork.

It’s a dirty business getting the raw

product refi ned and to market its many

forms to run the world as we know it. During

the refi ning process at those expansive

plants with their cloud-spewing towers—

seemingly miles of above-ground pipes,

and fi elds of storage tanks—the crude oil

is processed into the lifeblood of just about

everything we use in our everyday lives.

And, among all the other products that

come out of the spigot, there is the stuff

that we are most concerned with here:

gasoline and diesel fuel.

The “problem,” and the reason you

might want to use a fuel additive or

conditioner, begins with the refi ning

process. “Because the refi ners are trying

to get as much out of a barrel of crude

as they can, today’s aggressive process

of splitting open the molecules, using

catalysts and high temperatures is far

different from the distilling methods of

years ago, and can create more instability

in the afterproducts,” says Barry Sprague,

chemist and consultant.

But wait, there’s more! Moving

downstream from the refi ning process

is a host of ills waiting to be visited upon

our precious gasoline and diesel. For

example, the government-mandated

fuel for those of you who use gasoline

in your engines contains oxygenated

additives, offshoots of methyl and ethyl

alcohol. Add some heat and moisture

to the sometimes lengthy storage time

the gasoline sits around—from refi nery

tanks to tanker trucks to your marina

tanks—and you are likely to not only

46 s SOUTHERNBOATING.COM s MARCH 2016

Fuel conditioners, additives and stabilizers

ENGINE ROOM

The Fuel Measure

Today’s aggressive refining process might

be just the reason you need to use fuel

conditioners, additives or stabilizers.