The home heating oil industry has a long and proud history, and Fuel Oil News has been there supporting it since 1935. It is an industry that has faced many challenges during that time. In its 77th year, Fuel Oil News is doing more than just holding
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S t o r i ng F u e l s Fuel Quality What happens during storage of fuels? B y B o b Ta t na l l M ost fuel dealers believe that the quality of the fuel they buy and sell is poor. Most also believe that the quality gets even worse when that fuel is stored for months or years. Let's look at what really happens with storage of No. 2 distillate—heating oil or diesel fuel—and see how that affects fuel quality. First, let me say that I am not a fan of the specifications for our fuels today. I gave a paper at Oilheat Visions in Providence in 2006, making the case for a better specification for our heating oil—and especially regarding its stability. Most of the movers and shakers in our industry were at that conference and heard—or at least sat in the room—during my presentation. There has been no movement to improve the quality of our heating oil other than to reduce sulfur levels in a few locations, and to introduce B2 Bioheat in a couple of states. The ASTM specification for heating oil still has no meaningful requirement for stability of the fuel. Speaking of fuel stability—this was a real problem during the '70s and '80s, and continues to be a problem with some high-sulfur No. 2 fuel—especially if blended with light cycle oils by the fuel wholesaler. Unstable fuel forms microscopic particles of solid fuel that make the fuel look darker. You may have run across fuel oil that no longer looks like bright, clear red fuel, but more like coffee. Sometimes these particles clump together and settle out, making what looks like black river silt in the bottom of a tank. If the fuel is thermally unstable, it can cause backside coking of nozzles in some systems. This is still a problem for some of you—though not a big problem. 28 Should you be using a stabilizer Fig. 1 - Typical heating additive to improve your fuel? To oil filter fouled with sludge. stop sludge from fouling your filters, tanks, lines, strainers and nozzles? Not so fast! There's more to this story. For all the concern about fuel quality and operating problems in oil heat systems, you need to understand that most of those problems are caused not by deficiencies in the fuel itself—but rather by what happens once the fuel leaves the refinery and is transported and stored. The bottom line: water gets into the fuel and bad things grow in the fuel. That is the primary source of almost all of your system fouling. That is also the reason why pitting corrosion occurs in storage tanks—and why those tanks eventually leak and need replacement. Wait, you say, that isn't your problem? headache, why not simply kill them with The tank is the homeowner's problem? biocides? There is definitely a place for That is exactly what I hear from most fuel biocides in fuel systems—but not to defeat oil dealers—and that is one of the things sludge, fouling and corrosion. Why? homeowners dislike about oil heat. We Because the critters that cause sludge and have unwittingly allowed oil heat to be corrosion are embedded in their "bioknown as the dirty, smelly, and unreliable mass" (sludge), and biocides simply can't heating fuel—and we have told the cus- effectively reach them to make the kill. tomer that he or she is responsible for that Fortunately we have another way to ugly oil tank that one day may leak and handle all of this. In the early '90s we require replacement. No wonder gas and learned that "filming amines," chemielectric marketers are having a field day! cals used for decades in industrial water The fact is, oil heat systems have fuel-side systems to protect against corrosion, can operating problems, and oil tanks fail, pri- do that and more in fuel systems. We marily because water gets into the systems learned that, by combining two of these and bad things grow in them. Perhaps it's useful chemicals, we can dissolve away time we wake up to that and start treating to old sludge, prevent new sludge from stop those bad things from happening! forming, clean up dirty fuel systems, and Now that we realize that little critters stop the pitting corrosion that leads to growing in our fuel tanks are our major storage tanks leaks—all without having April 2013 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www.fueloilnews.com