Vietnamese authorities are speeding up tests on petroleum
samples after controversy surrounding recent incidents of vehicle fires.
Fuel tests
Tran Minh Dung, Chief
Inspectorate of the Ministry of Science and Technology, said the test results
will be announced before Tet holiday.
According to Dung, the
investigative agency will expand the testing areas for petroleum and gas
products in 2012.
After a Daewoo Lacetti caught
fire in Yen Dung District, Bac Giang Province, the district police plan to test
gasoline at the petrol station where the car owner bought fuel before the fire.
Nguyen Thi Nhan, wife of the
car's owner, said, “At 11am on December 26, my husband bought petrol at a
station only one kilometre far from our house. We often buy gasoline there.”
Senior Lieutenant-Colonel,
Nguyen Van Son, head of Yen Dung District police, told DTiNews that the local
investigative agency has asked that the Ministry of Public Security’s Institute
of Criminal Science participate in the investigation into the cause of the
fire.
The district police suspect
that the cause is substandard, or improperly mixed fuel combined with
mechanical problems.
Police in Thanh Hoa City are
also cooperating with local authorities to carry out an investigation of
another incident where a Mazda caught fire on December 27. Tran Ba Cuong, the
vehicle owner, said that he found it difficult to start the engine before the
fire.
Dangers of Improperly blended
fuel
Dr. Dao Quoc Tuy, Head of the
Hanoi University of Technology’s Department of Organic Synthesis and
Petrochemical Technology, said, “If gasoline is blended with additives, such as
acetone, methanol or methanol in certain proportions it would reduce pollutants
from exhaust. However, if the proportions are not right, it may cause damage to
an engine.”
Tuy said that the Ministry of
Industry and Trade and the Directorate for Standards, Metrology and Quality
have issued standards for blending gasoline, which stipulate that only a
maximum of 5% ethanol can be added to create bio-ethanol or E5. This ethanol
must also be 99.5% alcohol.
According to Tuy, a fire may
can occur even when a vehicle's engine is turned off because some of the
electrical components remain active. A short circuit could result in a fire.
"In 2006, there was a
spate of motorbike malfunctions in Ho Chi Minh City that was apparently a
result of of around 10,000 tonnes of improperly blended gasoline hitting the
retail market. However, in that case, no fuel-related fires were recorded. In
order be certain of the cause of recent vehicle fires, samples of gasoline
should be taken and analyzed.."
He noted that if fuel is the
the cause for these fires, there would have had to been a large amount of bad
fuel sold.
Dtinews
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