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www.fueloilnews.com | FUEL OIL NEWS | FEBRUARY 2015 19 Fuels "At no time have two new fuels come into the distribution pool at the same time," he added. "That's what we're going through over the past couple of years here." With their different properties and characteristics, these fuels operate and perform differently. "The same old routines and procedures of preventive maintenance, housekeeping, etc. need to be changed a bit," Stellmach said. "The days of lax housekeeping of storage tanks are gone. There's no easy way to put that. Water needs to be routinely monitored in tanks and removed on a routine basis. Tanks and dispensing equipment need to be protected from corrosion. That's the heart of the matter. "Those two main housekeeping procedures can make a big difference moving forward to make sure that the promises of these new fuels are realized by our industry," Stellmach said. Stellmach pointed out that Eric Slifka, president and CEO of Global Partners, Waltham, Mass., keynote speaker at the Southern New England Energy Conference held in September in Newport, R.I., supported use of additives. In his speech, Slifka said it was important to promote the use of additives to treat the deposits that have been collecting for years in the bottoms of customers' tanks, adding, "The cost of these additives is measured in tenths of points per gallon, not cents per gallon." Slifka also noted that there is a national additive require- ment for gasoline to address issues in gas engines and tanks. "We believe that the heating oil industry would benefit from having this same requirement," he said. Stellmach said, "It's not that the fuels are bad or they're dirty. It's just the nature of the beast. These fuels are reactive chemically, they're dynamic, they change quickly, they like to generate solids and particulate." A sharp difference in the temperature of fuel in a large tank and fuel being added to that tank can spell w-a-t-e-r, reported Brian Savage of Savage Associates, a bulk plant system designer based in Martinsville, N.J. "If there is a major difference in the temperature between B100 and diesel fuel or heating oil we see a phase sepa- ration and a knock-out"—that is, water collecting in the tank, Savage said. "We also see a major increase in bacteria if we don't treat it with bio-oxide," he added. Savage recounted how bacteria growth occurred in a large tank that had received a delivery of B100. "Warm product was brought in by tank [truck] and the temperature differ- ential was around 30 degrees," Savage said. "In a matter of two days there was a crazy bacteria buildup inside the tank." As a result, the plant operator is con- sidering adding bio-oxide to the B100 at the plant, instead of doing so down- stream, as has been the practice "for the past number of years." Instead, Savage said, bio-oxide could be dropped in during the actual blending of B100 with on-road diesel and fuel oil. "It's not just corrosion that we're trying to address," Savage said. "We're trying to address particulate buildup due to bacteria. " The same problem with bacteria growth cropped up in much the same setup at another bulk plant operation in New England, Savage said. That opera- tion gets its fuel from a different supplier than the operator in the first example he cited, Savage noted. In both cases, the bacteria problem was "strictly due" to temperature contrasts between the stored fuel and the fuel being delivered, he said. Leo Verruso, general manager of Advanced Fuel Solutions, a maker of heating oil additive based in North Adams, Mass., said, "The product itself acts as a better lubricant than its generic counterpart so it's better for the equip- ment because all equipment—trucks and oil burners—has pumps and gears and metal surfaces that rub together. So when the fuel has a better lubricating quality it helps the engine and its com- ponents and it's better for emissions." Verruso added, "Dealers really should talk about the evolution" of bioheat and biodiesel. "It's our fuel getting cleaner, and that shows the commitment of our industry," he said. A Matter of Degrees Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration. Note: Connecticut has passed legislation with the above requirements. However, the law requires New york, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island to have similar restrictions in place to trigger compliance, and as a result, no sulfur restrictions are yet enforced on heating oil. Specifications change on July 1 of the years shown, with the exception of Maine's requirements, which change on January 1. Note: ppm denotes parts per million