dnewton3
Staff member
One of the many things I learned from the FPS chemist I spoke with is that, just like lubricating oils, diesel fuel additives have benefits and limitations, and pretty much everything is a trade off. I'll do my best to recall the details of that conversation from long ago. I may have some stuff slightly mixed up, but you'll get the point.
Some additives are singular in purpose. Only lubricity, or only anti-gel, etc. These can be tailored to the goal and the chemistry can be very specific and precise. Because of this they can really get a fantastic result in that one special thing they are suited for. But, you need to be very careful and not mix these willy-nilly with other single-purpose additives, mainly because of what I'll discuss next ...
Other products are multi-functional. These are much more useful, overall. But they are compromises in terms of chemistry. The base carrier can only hold so much of this and that, and often the additives can be counter-productive to some minor degree. For example, the "white bottle" FPS is their winter formula. Because it includes the anti-gel additive (not used in the summer blend "silver bottle"), it has to reduce the amount of cetane improver it can tolerate in chemical balance. The lubricity agent in the winter blend is also a tad lower, because of the anti-icing agent. The detergent pack also limits other aspects of the blend; more cleaner means less lubricity agent. These are just a couple examples of where the sum of the total is a compromise. Think of these additives as the Jack of All Trades and Master of None. They do many things well, but they do nothing perfectly.
And then there's the topic of emulsifiers vs. demulsifiers ... Not only do they deal with water in different fashions, but they also interact with the other additives in different ways. He easily spent 15 minutes talking to me about that alone.
My take away from all this is that FPS and the other top-tier product lines have some very smart folks working for them and they spend a lot of time and money developing and producing a finished product that most of us would have no idea how complex it is without a good hour-long conversation (like what I got). And there are times when the road to the product destination may fork; there are times when two different options are both viable, but just different.
All of this is why I think these PF type videos are just nearly worthless. These guys are not chemists and don't understand the interactions of the products internally, nor do they test them in a manner which matters to the actual function of the product. It's just garage science for the sake of YT monetization.
Some additives are singular in purpose. Only lubricity, or only anti-gel, etc. These can be tailored to the goal and the chemistry can be very specific and precise. Because of this they can really get a fantastic result in that one special thing they are suited for. But, you need to be very careful and not mix these willy-nilly with other single-purpose additives, mainly because of what I'll discuss next ...
Other products are multi-functional. These are much more useful, overall. But they are compromises in terms of chemistry. The base carrier can only hold so much of this and that, and often the additives can be counter-productive to some minor degree. For example, the "white bottle" FPS is their winter formula. Because it includes the anti-gel additive (not used in the summer blend "silver bottle"), it has to reduce the amount of cetane improver it can tolerate in chemical balance. The lubricity agent in the winter blend is also a tad lower, because of the anti-icing agent. The detergent pack also limits other aspects of the blend; more cleaner means less lubricity agent. These are just a couple examples of where the sum of the total is a compromise. Think of these additives as the Jack of All Trades and Master of None. They do many things well, but they do nothing perfectly.
And then there's the topic of emulsifiers vs. demulsifiers ... Not only do they deal with water in different fashions, but they also interact with the other additives in different ways. He easily spent 15 minutes talking to me about that alone.
My take away from all this is that FPS and the other top-tier product lines have some very smart folks working for them and they spend a lot of time and money developing and producing a finished product that most of us would have no idea how complex it is without a good hour-long conversation (like what I got). And there are times when the road to the product destination may fork; there are times when two different options are both viable, but just different.
All of this is why I think these PF type videos are just nearly worthless. These guys are not chemists and don't understand the interactions of the products internally, nor do they test them in a manner which matters to the actual function of the product. It's just garage science for the sake of YT monetization.
