Alternative Uses for Gasoline?

Delta Force

Banned
Gasoline was a major waste product of the petroleum refining process until it became popular as a fuel for automobiles. What alternative uses could have been found for gasoline if automobiles hadn't come along to consume most of its production? Could gasoline have gone on to be viewed as too volatile for use as a fuel?
 
Solvent. People do that OTL; I would guess it does wonders for oily stains!:eek: Put the laundry in the washing machine, add petrol, start cycle and run. Either your washing machine does not blow up and you get clean fabrics that stink of gasoline (hang them on a clothesline). Or it does blow and one's laundry is well and truly finished!
Obviously in an ATL where people are scratching their heads as to what to do with all this useless stuff, there will be washers and dryers designed to minimize the risk of a fuel-vapor explosion.
 
Refine the other way

If gasoline is too volatile to use, but chemical processes continue to evolve, I'm sure that gasoline will be refined into heavier fuels in the same way that, in OTL, heavy fuels are cracked to make gasoline. (If such is possible, anyway...)

Alternatively, it would be possible, I'm sure, to make a steam engine that burns gasoline--though watch that burner assembly!
 
If gasoline is too volatile to use, but chemical processes continue to evolve, I'm sure that gasoline will be refined into heavier fuels in the same way that, in OTL, heavy fuels are cracked to make gasoline. (If such is possible, anyway...)

Alternatively, it would be possible, I'm sure, to make a steam engine that burns gasoline--though watch that burner assembly!
Town gas (mostly carbon monoxide) was about at the time, made from coal. Cracking gasoline to a mixture of LPG and methane should be fairly straightforward, and produces something that is vastly safer to live with.
 
If gasoline is too volatile to use, but chemical processes continue to evolve, I'm sure that gasoline will be refined into heavier fuels in the same way that, in OTL, heavy fuels are cracked to make gasoline. (If such is possible, anyway...)

Alternatively, it would be possible, I'm sure, to make a steam engine that burns gasoline--though watch that burner assembly!

The process of cracking involves breaking the hydrocarbon chains into smaller ones; the reverse process exists but is not as extensively used.

In this peculiar and admittedly difficult to envision scenario in which gasoline does not find an immediate use, it would probably be cracked further into even lighter fuels like propane before refiners attempted to increase its weight. Much more likely, it would simply be burned, as many have stated, in home stoves and in various boilers (sorry but gas lamps and lanterns would never be able to compete with electric lighting, even if the fuel was cheap) until such time as either reciprocating internal combustion engines or gas turbines (in which it would burn nicely) were finally developed. Another use would be to convert the gasoline into various feedstocks for organic chemicals should demand for these necessitate it.
 
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Solvent. People do that OTL; I would guess it does wonders for oily stains!:eek: Put the laundry in the washing machine, add petrol, start cycle and run. Either your washing machine does not blow up and you get clean fabrics that stink of gasoline (hang them on a clothesline). Or it does blow and one's laundry is well and truly finished!
Obviously in an ATL where people are scratching their heads as to what to do with all this useless stuff, there will be washers and dryers designed to minimize the risk of a fuel-vapor explosion.

You may laugh but about 15 years ago we bought a new washing machine. On the inside in English and French I warns you not to use gasoline as a liquid in the machine. You know some body did,got injured sued an won
 

Delta Force

Banned
Could gasoline take the place of heavy fuel oil in being used to fuel petroleum fired power stations? Could steam engines and/or large industrial gasoline engines be built to burn it?
 
Cleaning paint brushes, at least until water based acrylic & latex paints became common. Back in the oil paint days my father used gasoline from the lawn mower fuel can to rinse out his paint brushes. kerosene worked better, but cost seven cents a gallon more & back in 1963 Dad would have rather gone blind than spend a extra seven cents for four liters of substitute cleaning fluid. Turpentine worked best, but a feller would surely burn in hell for wasting another twelve cents on a gallon of that.
 
You may laugh but about 15 years ago we bought a new washing machine. On the inside in English and French I warns you not to use gasoline as a liquid in the machine. You know some body did,got injured sued an won

Back in the day people used gasoline, kerosine, or related solvents to clean grease or tar out of their work clothes. (Throwaway coveralls were not considered back then.) That worked ok with the antique open topped washing machines parked on the back porch. The inevitable vapors could dissipate. With the modern 'automatics' you were headed for trouble when Mom opened the washer top while lighting her Pall Mall, or the vapors reached the burner of the furnace in the same utility room. More than one aging but stubborn housewife set the house alight putting "I've always done it that way" ahead of good sense.
 
Lubricants and for medicinal purposes (think Vaseline)

Chemicals around WWI, lighter to heavier grades, as well as less explosive at room temps.

Cymogene : Its specific gravity is around .589, mostly Butane, C5 H10 and Pentane C5 H12 evaporates faster than ether. local anaesthetic

Rhigoline : A mixture of volatile hydrocarbons intermediate between Cymogene and Gasoline. Its specific gravity is .61 used as a local anaesthetic. Consists largely of Pentane, C 5 H 12
variants of this was used for Dry Cleaning before replaced by Naphtha, then Carbon Tetrachloride and in turn Trichloroethylene for safety reasons

Straight run Gasoline : specific gravity is around 0.72 C6 thru C9 It's really a blend of C5 H12 Pentane, C6 H14 Hexane, C7 H16 Heptane and C8 H18 Octane, depending on base stock of Crude

Naphtha, 'White' Gasoline : specific gravity is around 0.76 C10 H22. Stoves and lanterns, as well as non staining cleaning fluid

You can make refrigeration with those as the working fluid, just isn't very safe
 
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