Clean Fuel Begins with a Clear Understanding of Fuel Contamination

When you combine the word “contamination” with words like “food” and “water,” there’s a real sense of urgency for identifying the source and remedying the issue as quickly as possible.

When used in reference to “fuel,” it should strike a similar response among fuel site operators. Contaminants in a fuel system include water, organic and inorganic particulate, sludge, slime and biomass. If not detected early, the problems caused by fuel contamination can spread quickly, sending a healthy business into a downward spiral in terms of lost customer loyalty, forfeiture of fuel inventory and expensive damage to fuel system components.

Knowing more about the different kinds of fuel contamination can help you address these problems before they get worse. Here, we break down the three most common types of fuel contamination.

Kind of Contamination: Water

Fuels Susceptible to Water: Neat gasoline, diesel, biodiesel, ULSD (Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel), kerosene, and fuel oils.

How it Happens: Water gets into the fuel system through condensation caused by humid air and drastic changes in temperature, when it rains and through surface water runoff, during delivery from the refinery to the service station, leaking from bad fill pipes or vents, damaged spill buckets or fill cap gaskets, loose fittings or plugs.

Problems Caused:

• Vehicle performance issues, including engine knocking and breakdowns.
• Loss of customer loyalty and business.
• Growth of bacteria and fungi in storage tank, producing corrosive acetic acid that can eat away at the tank, resulting in expensive replacement and remediation costs.
• Potential loss of fuel product.
• Water is also a contributing factor to others forms of contamination: particulate resulting from microbial-induced corrosion, and phase separation in ethanol-blends. See below for more information.

Kind of Contamination: Particulate

Fuels Susceptible to Particulate: Neat gasoline, ethanol-blended gasolines, diesels, biodiesel, ULSD (Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel), kerosene and fuel oils.

How it Happens: Dust in the environment can infiltrate the system during the transfer from terminal tank to delivery truck, delivery truck to storage tank and during the ventilation process. Particles can become suspended in fuel due to rusting and corrosion of the storage tank, as well as the production of microbial growth, glycerin fall-out and additive instability.

Problems Caused:

• Damage to expensive fuel system components.
• Loss of customer loyalty and business.
• Damage to fuel injectors and engines.
• Unexpected downtime and loss of business due to contamination.

Kind of Contamination: Phase Separation

Fuels Susceptible to Phase Separation: Ethanol-blended fuel such as E10, E15 and E85

How it happens: Water intrudes tank, ethanol blend separates into two layers of liquid – one with a gasoline layer at the top, and the other with a high concentration of ethanol-water at the bottom.

Problems Caused:

• Engine failure and damaged engine components.
• Loss of customer loyalty and business.
• Costly disposal of contaminated fuel inventory.
• Corrosive properties damage storage tank, piping and dispenser components.

Fortunately, dispenser filters are one of the greatest tools operators have at their disposal for catching the telltale signs of fuel contamination. This relatively low-cost option represents a last line of defense for capturing contaminants prior to fuel entering a vehicle.

For instance, PetroClear offers fuel-dispenser filters and filtration accessories that can help capture particulates as small as 5 microns, sense elevated levels of water and detect phase separation, alerting the fuel-site operator by slowing the fuel coming through the dispenser. Fuel site operators who heed the filters’ warning and pivot to rectify an underlying cause will position themselves to grow customer loyalty and establish stronger operations over the long term.

BY THE NUMBERS

91%

of customers who participated in a PetroClear filtration survey described a dispenser filter’s ability to keep fuel clean as either important or extremely important.

100%

of customers rated a dispenser filter’s ability to keep water out as either important or extremely important.