FUEL STORAGE
Fuel issues are the #1 cause of equipment failure.
Over 60% of injector failures are from contamination.
And when you dig into these “fuel issues”, it becomes apparent that diesel fuel contamination is a primary problem that deserves both blame and consideration
Fuel Used to Have Longer shelf Life
In the 1960s, the US Army did a study of fuel storage life. They found that diesel fuels could be stored for 10 years or more without a problem.
Today, it’s not even close. Diesel Fuel #2 degrades 26% in the first 28 days and may be up to 95% if it has water in it. So, fuel storage life is way, way down.
So, what changed? Simply put, refineries are under pressure to produce more fuel from the same amount of crude, in order to meet ever-growing demand, they’ve had to develop new processes and methods to maximize that yield – processes like hydrocracking. In a nutshell, they break the larger molecules in crude oil into smaller molecules that can be turned into fuels like gasoline and diesel. So, they get more diesel fuel and gasoline from each barrel of crude oil.
While this is a good thing, the fuels they produce in this manner are less stable and start out with large proportions of “unstable precursors” – molecules that will turn into sludge and gums and deposits and varnishes.
Questions you need to ask yourself:
- Have you checked your tanks lately?
- When is the last time your fuel was tested?
- What can you expect if the fuel is bad?
- Have you checked for microbes?
- Which one is best for you? Mechanical or Chemical solutions?
- Can you do it yourself?
