TEG, or triethylene glycol, is a chemical compound that is used for dozens of purposes. Some companies use it to make plastics harder. Other companies use it in air sanitizers. More often than not, it is added to gasoline as a desiccant to remove extra water from gasoline and prevent freezing of water molecules in the gasoline. TEG's unique properties and some of the possible concerns you may have about it being added to your gasoline in your vehicle, are as follows.

The Boiling Point of TEG

Whenever you add a chemical to gasoline, there is always a concern that heat generated by the vehicle's engine could somehow cause the extra chemical to change or become dangerous. That is not the case with TEG because it has a boiling point of 545 degrees Fahrenheit. No matter how hard you push your car's engine or how hot you run it, your vehicle will never be able to boil the triethylene glycol and change its chemistry to do any sort of damage at all. Even race cars never reach those intense heat temperatures in their engines.

Autoignition Temperature of TEG

Considering the boiling point of TEG, you have little to fear where this chemical additive to gasoline is concerned. However, if you need additional evidence that shows how unconcerning TEG is for vehicles and gas, consider the autoignition point of this chemical. Triethylene glycol erupts into flames all on its own when it reaches a temperature of 700 degrees Fahrenheit. In order to get that hot, you would have to use an accelerant (i.e., a flammable substance used to start fires) that burns hot enough to make your car explode before the triethylene glycol would ignite itself and blow up your car even more. Since you are unlikely to intentionally set your car on fire and really attempt to get it to burn to ashes, it is clearly not a problem for this chemical additive in your gasoline.

Viscosity Changes to Your Gasoline

You would never want gas in your vehicle to become thick as sludge; that is understandable. However, that too is not a problem for TEG. As mentioned above, it acts as a desiccant in your gas, drying out the gas. TEG's own viscosity remains unchanged unless or until it reaches 47.8 cP at 20 degrees Celsius, or 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Even then, you would have to have nothing but pure triethylene glycol in your car's tank, and that is just not likely or possible because you put gas in there and the gas and TEG essentially "dilute" each other.

For more information, contact a triethylene glycol supplier.