Safe to fill up fuel tanks to the max in this heat?

Considering Pakistan’s scorching summer and rising petroleum prices, a claim has been made regarding how much fuel should be topped inside a vehicle.

According to a viral image being attributed to Pakistan State Oil (PSO), motorists should not fill gasoline to the full capacity of the tank owing to rising temperatures since it may trigger an explosion in the tank. Drivers can fill half of their tank and leave the rest for air.

Conversely, there has been no official word from the oil company in this regard; however, a similar image went viral years ago when PSO clarified that filling fuel tanks to their full capacity poses no harm to automobiles or passengers.

The announcement came after a Whatsapp message went viral on the internet in 2018. In view of rising temperatures, the message falsely claimed that PSO had warned the public against filling gasoline tanks to full capacity.

According to the statement from PSO, the auto-igniting temperature of gasoline is far higher than the peak summer temperatures in Pakistan. Filling a petrol tank to the maximum capacity poses no danger to the automobile or its occupants, and is considered fully safe and advantageous to the vehicle’s operation.

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Also, the idea that filling the vehicle’s gasoline tank to the full capacity will cause an explosion defies scientific logic.

This is because the auto-ignition temperature for petrol is 495°F (257°C), which is the lowest temperature required to ignite a gas or vapour in air without the presence of a spark or flame. The highest recorded temperature on earth was 56.7°C (134°F), observed on July 10, 1913, at Greenland Ranch, Death Valley, California, USA.