Fuel Vapour Recovery at Servo.

[cobramania]

My local BP has been digging up the driveway for a couple of weeks, & I wondered what's going on? I went there today to fill up (all works finished), to find they had new pumps (hoses & nozzles) with a sign on the pump saying "this pump now has vapour recovery" or something along those lines. It's an environmental mandate thing in NSW, don't know about other states?

Just wondering how many other servos around now have this?

I probably looked like an idiot, but I stood checking it all out, to find how it worked. The hose is much thicker, the handle looks about the same, & the bottom of the nozzle is the same, but the top of it is now thicker & has an open end, (so the fuel delivery nozzle is like a tube within a tube). At this particular servo, the pumps used to be silent running, but now you can hear the vacuum pump running.

Apparently the recovered fuel vapours are returned to the underground tanks, & it's got me wondering, how much vapour they actually recover & what they do recover, you've paid for.
Theoretically it will condensate back in the tank & return to liquid fuel.
That means on a high turnover servo, a percentage of fuel you've paid for will be returned for them to pump again to someone else, they also won't have to buy as much fuel.
While it's probably minuscule per day, it'll add up over the year/s.

NSW info can be found here: http://www.cleartheair.nsw.gov.au/in..._recovery.aspx

[Yellow_Festiva]

I think it's more a health initiative. The pump sucks in any escaping gasses rather than the gasses escaping.

The gasses being returned to the tank is just probably the best place to put it. I doubt it returns to liquid form to profit the petrol station.

[2011G6E]

Seeing as how when unleaded first came in, there were health warnings from overseas about the fumes, it's a good idea.

Back then, some motoring magazines showed translations of warnings that were on unleaded pumps in Europe...they said dire stuff like the additives replacing lead being carcinogenic, "not to breath the vapours, allow it to come in contact with bare skin, not to wash parts in it, not to use in any machinery like lawn mowers or weed trimmers not fitted with a catalytic converter", and so on and so on.

Deadly stuff...but not many people know it's actually worse than the nasty old leaded used to be...

[dallasv8]

you would have seen emails about how to save when pumping fuel?
couple of the points were dont hold the nozzle on flat out to prevent producing some of the vapour as it gets sucked back into the tank and you end up paying a bit more.
fuel up when its cold and not in the middle of the day etc.
dunno if its true, but interesting.

[cobramania]

It'll have some heath benefits, but then you'd normally breathe very little vapour fumes in while filling up you car, (mower or weed trimmer/chainsaw is a different matter), a ever so slight breeze will whisk the vapours away.

Saving/recycling fuel will be a bonus, that's not what this is about at all.

What this is for, is purely environmental (to save the planet), the fuel vapours are hydrocarbons, in the atmosphere these are greenhouse gasses, warming the planet & causing global climate change.
If the Government wanted to, they could tax the vapours under the carbon tax/emissions trading scheme.

[Road_Warrior]

When I worked in the industry, there was a huge flap about the impending crunch date for installing vapour recovery systems at servos. The idea was (is?) that bulk delivery and then dispensing of fuel into a car would be a closed system where instead of vapours venting to the atmosphere during fuel drops and refilling of cars, it would be recovered and stored in a tank for reprocessing later, whatever that would have been.

The costs were substantial if I recall. However my recollection was from 1999/2000 and a lot of things may have changed in the intervening years, like the implementation deadline for starters. Some servos are only starting to do it now, whereas way back when there was a deadline. Industry lobbying must have pushed it out. These requirements are/were the direct reason for the demise of a large number of inefficient or old service stations nationwide as it simply wasn't worth the $$$ to do the upgrades.

[Ben73]

Originally Posted by cobramania

Apparently the recovered fuel vapours are returned to the underground tanks, & it's got me wondering, how much vapour they actually recover & what they do recover, you've paid for.
Theoretically it will condensate back in the tank & return to liquid fuel.
That means on a high turnover servo, a percentage of fuel you've paid for will be returned for them to pump again to someone else, they also won't have to buy as much fuel.
While it's probably minuscule per day, it'll add up over the year/s.

Well if you want you can just breath in the vapour that you have paid for. Or let it get blown away in the wind. Even if you have paid for it, it's not like you can put it in your own fuel

[XR Martin]

Its fairly common overseas.
The vapour is fairly nasty stuff, both to you and the environment.

[aussie muscle]

Originally Posted by Yellow_Festiva

I think it's more a health initiative.

After WW2, the usa mandated a 50/50 mix of petroleum and Benzine. Benzine is a known carcenogenic (causes cancer) and there is a push to stop pumping this **** into the atmosphere. They claim the exposure is miniscule, if so, why is it necessary to change the system? All i know is i hate smelling the stuff, unfortunately all the garages around here have removed the locking on mechanism from the pump handles, so you have to physically hold it the entire time.