Interesting Visit Yesterday

[Jay Smith]

I got a great oppurtunity yesterday to visit ( with supervision ) the Top Secret Knocks Lab. at Exxon's largest US refinery . Man what a treat , they have 14 engines running 24/7 and more wires and computers hooked to one of them than somebody in intensive care. They run fuel recipes or blends from their different refiners in the area via pipline samples and the results is feed back to the originating blending points and thier the recipes are altered to obtain favorable results and stay on "test". These motors are knocking to beat the band . There is 2 guys in charge of these engines and they are like Rocket Scientests ( but really they are HIGHLY skilled and trained "mechaincs" ) They have a number of gasoline engines , a few diesels, and one to test JP-7 jet fuel that they make. If people only knew what went on behind the "Wizard's curtain"... I have been there for 30 + years and work in a light ends unit ( down stream from a cat cracker or fuel making machine ) and that was first oppurtunity I had to go to the intersanctom as my NEW boss was from that lab and had some stroke to get me back for a short 10 minute supervised tour ( and I do mean SUPERVISED );) ....

Have a Great Holiday,

[Markus]

Very interesting. Do you know how big a margin refiners typically have, i.e. what is typically the actual anti-knock index of 91 pump octane fuel if run in a test engine?

[Jay Smith]

Dunno Markus,
I'm just the grunt at the unit I'll ask the "powers to be" and see if I can come with an answer.Might be propritory and if it is I'll privately e-mail you....