Nitrogen enriched gasoline

[Boyo_Jim]

I see Shell heavily promoting this, and I understand it is now in all three of their normal grades of gas. And it is an engine cleaner.

But I wonder. Is shell saving bucks by putting nitrogen in its gasoline, rather than… more gasoline?

I saw several websites claiming Shell does not expect this to increase mileage, but I didn’t see any quotes of the opposite – that they don’t expect it to decrease mileage either.

So, is this some kind of Shell game?

[Nametag]

They’re not adding nitrogen to the gasoline, they’re adding nitrated detergents to their gasoline. This is supposedly to protect against their premature breakdown in higher compression/higher heat engines. No, it’s not cheaper, and I wouldn’t expect it to affect gas mileage – replacing one detergent with another isn’t going to do anything in that respect.

[Nametag]

Missed edit limit: found this in a blog:

The new formulation is apparently directed mostly at the newer Direct Injection technology that will be much more common in the next generation of cars, due to the greater fuel economy that direct injection offers. The placement of direct injectors means that they are exposed to far higher heat than injectors placed in the intake manifold, and Shell claims that this increased heat and pressure will “result in a breakdown of some other cleaning agents”, and that the breakdown of these cleaning agents will cause deposits on the injectors. They also claim that the new formulation is more effective on conventional fuel injectors and intake valves than the older formulation.