Harmattan; why you should not fill your old, expired or substandard LPG cylinder to the brim

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• Author: Muyiwa Ige(LPG Stakeholder and Consultant)

Ordinarily, you should not even be using an old, expired or fake cooking gas cylinder, if you have 100% love for yourself.

However, many people are still using these cylinders as a direct result of the current unpalatable economic situation in Nigeria.

At a time like this when the price of a brand new cylinder has hit the roof; with a new 6kg cylinder that was sold at the price of N7,500 about two years ago now going for N17,000+, the trend of using these old/substandard cylinders may not go away anytime soon.

It is in your best interest to take cognizance of the fact that the weather becomes very hot and the atmospheric temperatures rises sharply during the harmattan season.

When the atmospheric temperature rises, the vapor pressure of the cooking gas inside the cylinder also rises.

You should be aware of the fact that all cylinders have a maximum pressure they can withstand before they rupture/explode.

You need to also have it in mind that the higher the quantity of gas in a cylinder, the higher the vapor pressure inside that cylinder.

A typical standard cylinder has a maximum pressure of about 15 bar.

A corroded, fake or expired cylinder has a reduced maximum pressure of about 7-10 bar.

Therefore on a hot harmattan afternoon when the temperature rises, the vapor pressure of the cooking gas inside the cylinder also rises and can reach the 7 bar mark within hours, leading to the rupture/explosion of the cylinder.

Also take note that some unscrupulous LPG marketers seldom supply adulterated cooking gas  that has above-specification vapor pressure of beyond 5 bar.

Your corroded cylinder can rupture/explode, even at the point of refilling it when some quantity of such high pressure LPG (Cooking Gas) gets inside.

Therefore, if you still insist on you still insist on using your corroded, fake or expired 6kg cylinder, do not refill more than 3kg of cooking gas in it. You can apply the same guideline for other sizes of LPG cylinders.

If the corrosion has reached an advanced stage, kindly discard the cylinder for your safety.

My prayer for you is that you will not exit planet earth prematurely via cooking gas explosion