Take care of your fuel, and it will take care of you!

As a fuel terminal operator, distributor, dealer, marketer, or jobber, ensuring fuel quality for your customers and your business reputation is a year-round commitment, but fall and spring are two critical periods when this really must be top of mind. These transition periods between winter’s wet, cold temperatures and summer’s heat and humidity are prime times to check fuel systems and treat for moisture, microbial growth, oxidation, and more.

Water Contamination

Water is essential for life, and yet, ridding fuel tanks of moisture is paramount as fuel moves through the supply chain. Otherwise, microbes will multiply at exponential rates, eating hydrocarbons and excreting acetic acid, die, and the cycle is repeated innumerable times until what’s left is the aftermath of their destruction: compromised fuel and storage tanks from sludge, fuel instability, corrosion, and more. “Water is the number one contaminant in fuel―it’s that simple.

Cold-flow Operability Concerns

While ultra-low sulfur heating oil (ULSHO) is certainly a cleaner-burning, more efficient fuel—especially when blended with biodiesel—it is not a cure-all for every common fuel problem, nor does it come without its own operational concerns. The process used to remove sulfur also removes oxygen, nitrogen, and other functional elements. This yields a fuel that is more paraffinic, or waxy (to the detriment of its cold-flow operability), and less stable in storage.

Where higher sulfur fuel possesses natural lubricating qualities, ultra-low sulfur fuel’s compromised lubricity as a result of the desulfurization process would benefit greatly from lubricity agents to keep fuel pumps functioning optimally. Like biodiesel, ULSHO can be prone to increased entrained water levels and is more susceptible to water and microbial contamination. Also, like biodiesel, ULSHO is more soluble than high-sulfur fuel, making it more likely to loosen legacy sludge in tanks.

Managing Fuel Quality: More than a Bottle

Barry Aruda, AFS Northeast Territory Manager, says “reactive” often sums up an initial call he might get from a prospective new client. “Something happened in their world they didn’t plan for, and they’re looking to remediate the problem as quickly as possible,” he says. “Some want a miracle cure, but fuel quality doesn’t come out of a bottle.” Concentrated, contemporary additive chemistries are vital, but they’re only one important part of a much more holistic approach to fuel quality.

“Some clients need a consultant to guide them down the path until they better understand it,” Aruda says. “Then, if they just want us to send them a drum every six months, great. Once they know what’s going on, it’s a matter of routine maintenance and dosing.” Reactive situations like these first-time cold calls require investigation, but not of the caliber of Sherlock Holmes’. “We need to figure out what they’re dealing with and how to get them back to square one, and from there be proactive to protect them from this happening again,” he explains.

Proactive Measures

In addition to high-quality additives, other proactive measures―such as sticking tanks at least twice a year with water-detecting paste, grabbing bottom samples with a fuel thief, visual inspection, and laboratory analysis, and making sure storage tanks and vehicle fleets are being treated at the right times with proper dosing of effective additives―are critical components to the overall health of your tanks, fuel, and business reputation.

Getting Started

When you make that initial call to the experts, set realistic expectations. If your storage tanks and housekeeping protocols have been neglected for years, then an overnight fix is not realistic.

“We have to take a look at the specific situation, often pulling a fuel sample to test for water, sediment, sludge, and active microbial contamination like bacteria, fungus, and yeast," explains Mark Smith, AFS national sales manager. “We can send it to a lab, but a lot of it is visual also,” Smith says. “I don’t mind climbing on top of tanks. There’s a science to it, knowing where to tank sample.” The samples and results drive the conversation.

Analysis & Treatment

Smith then generates a report including photos, lab results, and, if remediation is required, a treatment protocol. This will include simple but effective housekeeping measures to minimize the recurrence of these situations, along with a chemical regimen. “It may be a dual-phase micro-biocide or a glycol dehydration additive,” Smith says.

For home heating fuel, AFS offers its trademarked Heatdoc featuring distillate and biodiesel stabilizers, sludge dispersant, corrosion protection, free metal coverage, and water control. The best part is that Heatdoc is so concentrated, its recommended dosage is 1:20,000. AFS’s SZP winterizing additive for heating oil includes everything Heatdoc offers, plus a pour-point depressant. The company also has a litany of other proprietary chemistries for diesel, gasoline, marine, and biodiesel fuels.

Why Fuel Additives are Essential

Contemporary additives are important because some suppliers formulated chemistries years ago for yesterday’s fuels. But fuels change sulfur levels, renewable content, and refining processes, all of which influence fuel properties. Smith says AFS’s additives meet the needs of today’s and tomorrow’s fuels. Here’s a case in point.

Real-life Application

RA Bair & Son Oil Service Inc. provides home heating fuel to southern Pennsylvania. When it switched to ultra-low sulfur heating oil, customers’ residential oil burner pumps began locking up. Vice President Tom Bair met Smith previously at a trade show. Bair had Smith’s business card handy and called him. They talked, and Smith told Bair about AFS’s Heatdoc and SZP additives. Smith rushed bottles of SZP to Bair until larger Heatdoc containers arrived. “He got it to me quickly,” Bair says. “We put SZP into our customers’ tanks, and we never had those problems again. Once we got the Heatdoc, we never looked back. It’s in every drop of fuel we sell.”

Playing Detective

Calls from existing clients may be similarly reactive. It could be 1 o’clock in the afternoon or 1 o’clock in the morning―a heating oil dealer or a diesel jobber whose homeowner or fleet customer is experiencing no heat or engine trouble. They often begin with questions such as “How many deliveries did you make that day?” and “Did any of the other fuel recipients that day have issues?” These can go a long way in identifying the root problem. As Arthur Conan Doyle wrote, “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” If no other fuel-delivery customers had problems that day, the possibility of bad fuel can be eliminated. “The issue then is most likely the customer’s tank has been contaminated for a long time, and this was the day things decided to go sideways,” Aruda says. “You have to play detective and pull apart the layers.”

Beyond Fuel Additives

The amount of water and the evidence of destruction may, at times, be too great to treat with additives alone, no matter how good they are. In these cases, the water must be removed and the tank dried. Although this is more expensive, the alternative may be going out of business. When water, bacteria, or corrosion have irreparably damaged the tank or components, equipment may need to be replaced.

Once corrective action is taken, however, maintaining fuel quality is a simple matter of discipline and, of course, the right additives. “Otherwise, you’re operating without a net,” Aruda says. So, fear not what lies beneath your fuel. Experts like those at AFS want your business to be alive and well, not the monsters in your tanks.

If you have questions or concerns about the quality of your fuel, please contact our expert team.