BoatBanter.com - View Single Post - LPG problem: regulator, solenoid

Bruce in Bangkok[_10_]

On Sat, 14 Feb 2009 16:23:42 GMT, (Richard
Casady) wrote:

On Sat, 14 Feb 2009 19:11:28 +0700, Bruce in Bangkok
wrote:

Exactly. A great many airosols are using deoderized propane

Nitpick. Never odorized in the first place. BTW, they use some
mercaptan for that. A Texas school was heated with odorless gas,
[including some propane], from a well on the place, and it blew up
with no warning. I used to have a place with a propane furnace in the
basement, but it wasn't a boat with waves flexing all the connections.
Thousand gallon tank. Sometimes you can hear an exploding house for
miles. TNT is 2000 BTU per pound, hydrocarbons run about 18 000.

Casady

Lets put it this way. The propane that the gas plant I installed in
Central Java had an odor. The same people that built our plant were
installing a "deodorized propane" plant in Alabama. I asked them what
"deodorized propane was used for and they told me that it was aerosol
propellant. Now, if propane has no odor then obviously the gas plant
people were getting about two million dollars for nothing.

Meracptain is added to, mainly, LPG as a matter of law in most
countries. Commercial Propane, not the cooking kind, is not
adulterated with nasty stinking stuff :-)

According to my copy of "Physical Properties of hydrocarbons" the net
BTU/lb (of liquid) wt. in vacuum, of propane is 19757, gross = 21079.
Heat of vaporization is 183/BTU/lb.
n-Octane (the closest I can get to "gasoline which is actually a mix
of hydro-carbons) is 19096/BTU/lb. One pound of dynamite is about
5,000 BTU.

Of course that isn't the entire story as the effects of an explosive
is primarily measured by its speed of propagation. Not by BTUs.

But in any event. Any hydro-carbon is dangerous if it is ignited.

Cheers,

Bruce