Emission

Emission

Refuel station at Port Campbell on the way to the camp Coorimungle. I noticed that the setting looks very old fashioned and the white rusty beetle car and the gas tank will definately add an an impact when made into black and white photo.



Some stations carry specialty fuels such as liquified petroleum gas (LPG), natural gas, hydrogen, biodiesel, ethanol, or kerosene. In recent times filling stations have also begun to sell butane and added shops to their primary business, and convenience stores are now a familiar sight alongside pumps.

As automobiles became popular in the United States, the need for gas stations arose. (The first places that sold gasoline were pharmacists, as a "side line" business.)^{[citation needed]} Henry Ford's use of mass-production techniques to manufacture automobiles made it possible for consumers to purchase cars at an affordable price. This increase in car ownership resulted in a greater demand for filling stations. The first gas station was built in 1907 by Standard Oil of California (now Chevron) in Seattle, Washington. Early on, they were known to motorists as "filling stations". Standard Oil began erecting roadside signs of their logo to advertise their gas stations.

In small towns and rural areas, gas stations sometimes allow customers to pump gas first and pay afterwards. Due to the higher incidence of crime in large urban areas (especially drive-offs), customers must generally pay before pumping fuel.

Modern gas stations have pay-at-the-pump capabilities — in most cases credit, debit, and ATM cards are accepted. At some stations, cash is also taken at the pump, although customers must collect their change at a cashier window which is often bullet-proof. Occasionally a station will have a pay-at-the-pump-only period per day, when attendants are not present, often at night, and some stations are pay-at-the-pump-only 24 hours a day.

Today, few stations advertise full service, and those that do usually only provide mini service unless a manager is involved. However, full service stations are common in wealthy and upscale areas. The cost of full service is usually assessed as a fixed amount per gallon.

It is prohibited to use open flame and, in some places, a mobile phone on the forecourt of a gas station. This is because of the risk of igniting gasoline vapor. The safety issue with mobile phones, however, is disputed. While mobile phones can distract people and increase the chance of an accident occurring, there is no significant danger from the radio waves emitted by a mobile phone. In fact, many petrol station display towers in the UK are also relay transmitters for the mobile phone networks.

Although it has been claimed that a faulty mobile phone can cause sparks or a build-up of static electricity in the user, this has not yet been conclusively proven, however mobile phone manufacturers and gas stations still tend to ask the users to switch off their phones. One is more likely to get a spark from wearing nylon clothing than from a mobile phone [1]. Also, the static charge acquired by a person as he or she leaves the car (due to triboelectric charging from friction between the person's clothing and the car seat) is thought to be the culprit in over 50% of fires which occur during refuelling. Usually, when a person leaves the car, he or she must open the door covering the gas cap and remove the cap itself, thus dissipating any static charge through a small shock as he or she is "grounded" to the car's metal body.

However, if the person has set the pump to continue filling automatically, returns to the car, then leaves the car again to check the pump before it has fully stopped, an explosion could easily result. This is because after the person has left the car for the second time, he or she is likely to remain electrically charged up to the point of touching the nozzle, at which point the concentrated vapour expelled from the tank can be ignited by sparks jumping from the person's hand to the nozzle. In the UK automatic filling is outlawed except for HGVs filling with diesel fuel to minimise the risk of fire. A recent investigation by the Discovery network found that the main culprit in most gas station fires were women, as they are 6 times more likely to get in and out of their vehicles during refueling.

It is therefore always good practice, especially in arid climates, to safely ground oneself by touching any part of the car away from the gas tank port before filling the tank or touching the filling nozzle. The effect has also been noted in several instances where jerrycans were filled in the back of a pickup truck which had a plastic "bed liner". These tanks should always be removed from the vehicle and filled while on the ground.

(courtesy wikipedia.com)