No Avgas 100LL by 2030 ??

[Reynard]

The global availability of Tetra Ethyl Lead (TEL) may influence the supply of 100LL Avgas sooner rather than later.  Is Australia’s GA and Recreational fleet ready for this……and will airfields around Australia have an alternative available in time ??

“U.K.-based Innospec, which is the sole remaining manufacturer of TEL in the Western world, plans to permanently discontinue production in the 2028–2029 timeframe. The highly corrosive nature of manufacturing TEL makes maintaining the aging equipment too expensive to justify continued operations” (AVweb)

[skippydiesel]

Go Rotax!!!! 😈

Edited 10 hours ago by skippydiesel

[440032]

America is not even ready for it.

It is widely not known that many Lycomings are factory certified to run on unleaded automotive fuel that meets their nominated specifications.

Lycoming Service Instruction 1070AB and there are significant provisos.

Automotive ground transportation fuels available direct to consumers (e.g. “pump gas”) usually do not have labels with sufficient information to identify compliance with the requirements in Table 2.

IN COMPLIANCE WITH THIS SERVICE INSTRUCTION, THE AUTOMOTIVE FUEL MUST AGREE WITH ALL SPECIFICATIONS IN TABLE 2. AUTOMOTIVE GASOLINE THAT IS NOT IN CONFORMANCE WITH THE SPECIFICATIONS IN TABLE 2 IS NOT TO BE USED.

WHEN USING THE AUTOMOTIVE FUELS IDENTIFIED IN TABLE 2, LYCOMING OIL ADDITIVE P/N LW-16702, OR AN EQUIVALENT FINISHED PRODUCT SUCH AS AEROSHELL 15W-50, MUST BE USED.

Presumably they tested that exact grade of fuel and approved it. The problem is the user (us) cannot be assured any auto fuel purchased is that exact same grade. It won't be, certainly not here in DownUnderstan.

I did try look into what spec our auto fuel is, but I soon lost the will to live.

Interesting that some older aircraft have an auto fuel STC. Amazing that a piece of paper can fool a leaded engine into happily running unleaded, though probably with a couple of provisos there too.

 

Some breathtaking info:

1 gram of TEL contains 640.6 milligrams of lead.

AVGAS 100LL contains less than 0.56grams/litre of TEL.

0.56 grams of TEL contains 0.358 grams of lead.

0.72kg of avgas (1lt) contains 0.358 grams of lead, or 0.05%

 

 

[Reynard]

If you fly a Rotax and have an understandably strong bias toward Mogas, it is almost logistically impossible to fly long distances in Australia without having to resort to using Avgas at some locations. (Don’t ask me how I know)

[pmccarthy]

My Archer had a Mogas STC. Mogas in the USA is not the same, but my Archer didn’t know that.