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Also ethanol is added at the same time and they use the splash method. So it's not exact how much corn you get in each gallon
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Not all is blended by splash method... a lot of tank farms have the capability to blend right at the fuel rack with true blending methods.
I just took a refinery tour last week... one of the last refineries in the US still giving tours due to DHS regs. The reason they still give tours is because they are a member owned cooperative and therefore they can give tours to members.
It's Country-Mark (formerly IN Farm Bureau Co-Op). The refinery is in Mt Vernon, IN. I learned a LOT about how fuel is handled that day. This is not meant to be a be-all, end-all, but I will tell you what I learned. Most of this is specific to that refinery but most likely a lot of it is similar to how most other refineries operate.
As for gasoline, they produce 2 different products. They produce a 91 octane and a 84 octane. The 2 are blended with ethanol, additives etc to get the 87, 89, 90, 91, 93 octanes they sell. The blending happens at the tank farms, of which they have 3 in Indiana (4 if you count the tanks at the refinery). ALL blending is done at the rack as the fuel goes in the truck and it is NOT splash blended. Local Shell, Huck's, Casey's etc all buy gas from CountrMark. But they don't do so exclusively, they may also bring gas from elsewhere. The difference between the Shell, Casey's, Huck's etc is the additive package. The 87 octane, before additives is the exact same product. But the CountryMark fuels get their extended additive package, the others don't. Do the additives really make a difference? I can't say for sure, certainly CM is biased in believe their package is best. It may be. I do know that their prices are competitive with everybody else.
Random fact for people that live in the area of service for Country Mark(Indiana, SE IL, and West-central OH)
Country Mark fuels are 100% refined in IN from 100% Illinois basin light, sweet crude. IL basin crude is pumped from SE IL, SW IN, and a few wells in NC KY. So if you like to support US companies paying locals workers, and local well-owners look no further than Country Mark.
The difference between running a refinery like this and others is that most others are looking at the bottom line and are often buying crude on the open market. They may get crude from this region this week and another region the next. This makes it challenging to keep your refining process in very close check. The process may still be "in-spec" but that doesn't mean it's as good as it could be. By running the exact same crude year-round for many years they have the process down. That ideally yields a bit better product. Will you notice? Probably not. But it could be a benefit. Also, they do not sell jet-fuel and kerosene, which are both a step above diesel. Most refineries sell those products. As they are refined off, they get blended back into the diesel fuel. That does, in fact, yield a noticable quality difference in their diesel fuel.
If you want ethanol free gas, look for the 91+ gasoline product at you local Country Mark fueling station. The 91+ product is 100% gasoline with no ethanol. This info is straight from the lab at the refinery and confirmed by the State/District representatives that took us on the tour.
Ultimately, I do believe there are some out there that are yielding better fuel products than the big-names, but as far as "cheap gas", it's mostly all the same. It may be contaminated with something making it "cheap" but if they are selling that there is a chance they are breaking the law...