KING OF KITCHEN

Hello Readers!

The present lifestyle we are living is purely based on work and money. However, we spent some time to eat. It's always special to eat mom's food than hotels. That mom's taste should need a essential thing. Without that, there is no cooking at all. We may also call it as a "KING OF KITCHEN". Nothing, just a gas cylinder we use. This blog will give you some unknown facts about gas cylinder. 

Gas cylinders has three major sub divisions in it. They are High Pressure Industrial Gas Cylinders, Acetylene Cylinders, Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) Cylinders. First, High Pressure Industrial Gas Cylinders. This type of cylinders are used to store nitrogen, hydrogen and helium gases in industries. They are toxic gases and need some care to handle it. Then, acetylene cylinders. They are majorly used to store acetylene gases. The are used for welding, cutting in industries. 

Next , LPG cylinders. The gas used in these cylinders are Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). From it's name, we came to know that the LPG gas will be a liquid to some extent. The liquid will be around 80-85 percent and the remaining area will be gas. It will be stored under some pressure. Due to this, the liquid inside is converted into gas which will be the output in the stove. This concept was found by a chemist Dr. Walter O Snelling in 1910. He tested an experiment with a jug of petrol. Due to the lid which is closed, the pressure created inside the jug make the lid open. By this, he found the concept of storing LPG gases in containers. This concept was patented in 1913. There is no special note about the start up of gas industry. But, there is an assumption that the first high pressure gas cylinder was came into use in 1880's.

There are some major LPG companies in India. The top companies are Indane, HP Gas, Bharat Gas, Essar. India consumes 2,49,00,000 tonnes of LPG per year. It's keep on increasing 6% annually. The major importers of LPG gas to India are SAudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait. Their contribution is about 76% of the import.

While refining Crude Oil, we get output as Natural Gas and LPG. Natural gas will be stored in gas state. But, LPG is converted into liquid state for proper usage and transportation. LPG has its major content as Propane and Butane. We are living in Northern Hemisphere. So, the composition of propane will be more in winter and the composition of butane will be more in summer season. There is a reason for it. The boiling point of propane is too small. It can be converted into gas even in -42 degrees.This is the reason for the higher composition of propane in LPG. Meanwhile, Butane's boiling point is too high. It can be freezed even in -0.5 degrees. So, it is used in summer season. 

Cylinder material plays a major role. It should be strong to withstand the pressure given to it. The validity of gas cylinders will be 20 years only if it's manufactured in IS 6240 grade steel. Normally, empty gas cylinder weighs around 15.2 -15.3 kgs. The gas filled in it weighs around 14.2 kgs. It will be mentioned as nett wt. in gas cylinders. By adding both, we'll get total around 29.5-30.0 kgs. It will be mentioned as gross wt. in cylinders. The colour and design of gas cylinders are approved by a government body, Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO). 

In India, there are two major colour representation for gas cylinders. Signal red gas cylinder is for domestic use. The other one is blue with red strips, for commercial use. The standard diameter is 315 mm and height 825 mm. There is no smell and colour for LPG. A special chemical called Ethyl Mercaptan which is used for the smell by which helps us to identify the leakage.

There is special character format in cylinders. It consists of one alphabet and 2 numerals. A, B, C and D are the four alphabets mentioned. A represents January to March, B represents April to June, C represents July to September and D represents October to December. The last two digits indicate the last two digits of validity year.

All gas cylinders has some holes at the bottom. There may be chances of getting leakage due to corrosion of bottom of the cylinder when it is in contact with water in the absence of this layer. The presence of this layer helps the water to evoparate and keeps the bottom area dry which reduces the chances of leakage. For this reason, holes concept was introduced.

It may also affect the environment. The level of carbon-di-oxide released by these cylinders are however less than coal and oil, they are more than natural gas. So, there may be some chances of affecting environment by cylinders too.

"Know the Unknown"

- ShanKeth & KisHor