Coke Bottle Fuel Tank

[Gray E Fowler]

Dean

Coke has alot of lactic acid that corrodes aluminum, but does not affect 
most plastics. In a previous life (NOT the one when I served in Her 
Majesty's army in India) I formulated epoxy floorings and coatings, which 
led me to the beer factories. The fab cost of beer breaks down as this..

#1 cost = Taxes, which are determined by the amount of alcohol. Hence 
light beer has 1/2 the alcohol, 1/2 the taxes, and they charge the 
consumer the same price (not me or you no doubt).

#2 The container! Hence the reason for the 3 types of coating you 
mentioned, which are by the way, is regular epoxy, and the expensive is 
novolac epoxy.

#3 Labor-after all they are Union. Once had to work at Miller's over 
Thanksgiving. The plant was 100% shut down. A group of workers came in 
everyday, clocked in and then proceeded to sleep in the locker room or 
play dominoes in the cafeteria...after all the plant was shut down, but 
their union contract said they had the right to work that day.

#4-ingedients, which is SUPPOSED to be water, hops, yeast, barley NOT rice 
like Bud, Coors, etc. 



 



Gray Fowler
Principal Chemical Engineer
Composites Engineering



"Dean Pappas" <d.pappas at kodeos.com> 
Sent by: discussion-request at nsrca.org
07/26/2005 08:48 AM
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RE: Coke Bottle Fuel Tank






Right-o Gray.
PET is not good for either methanol or nitro. Nitro will even swell 
Plexiglass.
A word about BEER, though. Why not?
I used to design electro-chemical corrosion rate monitoring equipment. The 
technical marketting guys had a lab that would do experiments for 
customers, to prove the viability of using E-C methods for their needs. 
When your standard product cost the same as a Chevy Caprice, you do things 
like that for customers: kinda like a test drive. Yes, we talked to a beer 
can mannufacturer. Turns out that all drink cans have one of three 
coatings: 1) cheap, 2) good, and 3) better. Almost all beer that comes in 
aluminum cans is internally coated with the cheap stuff. All soda cans are 
coated with the best stuff. Back then, Keystone beer advertised that their 
aluminum cans didn't taint the beer, and it was coating #2. We proved it 
in the lab. Coke corroded the aluminum, through both coatings #1 and #2, 
in no time. It does a pretty good job on the fancy coating, too.
 
If you wanted to use an aluminum can for a tank, you'd have to first take 
the coating out, with some solvent. That sure would be light, though!
later,
    Dean 
 
Dean Pappas 
Sr. Design Engineer 
Kodeos Communications 
111 Corporate Blvd. 
South Plainfield, N.J. 07080 
(908) 222-7817 phone 
(908) 222-2392 fax 
d.pappas at kodeos.com 
-----Original Message-----
From: discussion-request at nsrca.org [mailto:discussion-request at nsrca.org]On 
Behalf Of Gray E Fowler
Sent: Tuesday, July 26, 2005 9:25 AM
To: discussion at nsrca.org
Subject: Re: Coke Bottle Fuel Tank


Wayne-o 

Are you crazy-mon? First, the bottles are Polyethyl tera phthalate....and 
are NOT chemical resistant.  Let me provide and example that I know  you 
can understand....BEER. 

Whether you realize it or not, beer has alcohol in it. Alcohol is deemed 
in some parts of my industry as a "solvent". Other view it as "essential", 
but thats another story. Until very recently, did you ever notice that 
beer NEVER came in plastic bottles? Even now only beer without any real 
taste (its raining beer!) comes in plastic, so they can sell the stuff up 
north where the football fans like to throw things at the Dallas Cowboys. 
Shrinkage comes from one of two things, first you swam in the cold water 
way too long, or second you leached out what is reffered to as a 
"plasticizer". A plasticizer is an additive that allows the grocery store 
idiot to drop that bottle of coke without explosion. It also is the stuff 
that you just ran thru your engine. When it croaks, or when your glow plug 
croaks you will now have an obvious reason. 
Beer uses ethyl alcohol, we use Methyl, which is much more aggressive as a 
solvent. Our real fuel tanks are made from polypropylene, which is VERY 
chemical resistant in is un-plasticized form. As a matter of fact, if you 
buy Methyl alcohol, it comes in polypropylene drum, because it will 
corrode steel. As a matter of fact most fuel comes in polypropylene 
containers.....ones with steel cans have an epoxy coating in them. 

And now to debunk another myth........the above plastics are 
"thermoplastic" epoxy is "thermoset". Epoxy  (thermosets) does not get 
brittle with age, unless you the user add some crap to it.  5 minute stuff 
WILL as it is accidently plasticized by all the stuff used to jack up the 
reaction. 

And one last thing.......... Beer + Plastic = bad taste, and as my 
Chemistry 101 professor so diligently demonstrated in mathimatical terms, 
you should never drink light beer.....Instead, drink a real beer, followed 
by 10.52 ounces of water, then a real beer and another 10.52 ounces of 
water. Your caloric intake will be the same as 4 light beers, but at least 
you got to drink 2 real beers. 



Gray Fowler
Principal Chemical Engineer
Composites Engineering 

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