2006-11-16 23:09:51 · 2 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Chemistry
How the heck would you add color to a gas? If you added a gas that has color (like chlorine) you'd have chemical problems when you lit the flame as well as toxicity problems. How else to color a gas, add a colored powder (powdered dye)? That would get messy fast, and anyway you couldn't keep it suspended in the gas. That's why they added an odorant to warn about leakage instead of a dye.
2006-11-16 23:25:17 · answer #1 · answered by kirchwey 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Even if you could artificially color a gas, which would be an intense technical challenge, you would have a tough time coloring it enough to get as good a threshhold as we do with the odorants that are used. The odor techniques can pick up leaks at the ppm level, well before an explosion hazard is present.
They do use a colorant to look for leaks in refrigerant systems, but these freons have much higher boiling points than LPG- they are almost liquids at room temp, which makes it easier to blend a colorant.
2006-11-17 07:36:28 · answer #2 · answered by margincallgentlemen 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋