October 9, 2024 • 12 mins
In this episode of the Fuel Pulse Show, host Erik Bjornstad continues the "back to school" series, focusing on preventing winter gelling problems in ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel. He discusses two main solutions: anti-gel chemical packages and kerosene dilution.
Bjornstad explains how cold flow improvers work by keeping wax crystals dispersed and suspended in the fuel. He compares the costs and effectiveness of both methods, providing guidance on when and how often to treat stored fuel based on temperature forecasts. The episode emphasizes the importance of proactive treatment to avoid operational shutdowns due to fuel gelling, especially given increasingly unpredictable weather patterns.
What You'll Learn:
- The basics of winter gelling problems in ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel
- Two main solutions for preventing gelling: anti-gel chemical packages and kerosene dilution
- How cold flow improvers work to keep wax crystals dispersed in fuel
- Cost considerations for both anti-gel treatments and kerosene dilution
- When and how often to treat stored fuel based on temperature forecasts
- The importance of monitoring temperature trends for effective fuel treatment
- Considerations for retreating fuel during the winter season
- The potential consequences of not treating fuel and the value of proactive measures
Ideas Worth Sharing:
Here are three notable quotes from the podcast episode:
- "Now, we wouldn't be talking about all these problems if there weren't solutions to help with them. The common options to prevent gelling problems from happening that we see out there in the world, The real world, so to speak."
- "Treating your fuel to protect against gelling is relatively inexpensive to do compared to the financial cost of having a gelling problem that shuts down operations of whatever kind of engine you're in charge with."
- "We've all seen that the weather is more and more unpredictable in recent years, and you don't want to get caught unprepared."
Resources:
- Cold flow improver
- Erik Bjornstad: LinkedIn
Show Notes:
00:00:00 - Introduction to the Fuel Pulse Show and topic overview
00:00:40 - Recap of previous discussions on winter gelling problems in diesel fuel
00:01:13 - Introduction to two main solutions: anti-gel chemical packages and kerosene dilution
00:01:40 - Explanation of cold flow treatment and how it works
00:03:00 - Discussion on keeping wax crystals suspended in fuel
00:04:00 - Introduction to kerosene dilution method
00:05:00 - Cost considerations for anti-gel treatments and kerosene dilution
00:07:00 - Comparison of costs between anti-gel and kerosene methods
00:08:00 - Guidance on when to treat stored fuel
00:09:00 - Importance of temperature forecasts and trends
00:10:00 - Considerations for retreating fuel during the season
00:11:00 - Conclusion and recommendations for protecting stored diesel fuel
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Fuel Pulse Showpodcast where we talk about all
things fuel for all kinds of people.
I'm your host Eric Bjornstadand I'll be your guide through
the ever changing world of fuel.
Today, we are continuing our FuelPulse show back to school episodes,
where we go back and we dig intobasic building blocks of fuel care.
(00:21):
And we've been talking recentlyabout considerations behind
preventing winter gelling problemsin stored ultra low sulfur diesel.
Now in past episodes, we talked abouthow diesel fuels get gelling problems.
because of the effect that cold wintertemperatures have on their ability
to keep their wax content soluble.
(00:42):
We also talked previously aboutthe temperatures where you might
expect problems to show up at.
Now, we wouldn't be talking aboutall these problems if there weren't
solutions to help with them.
The common options to preventgelling problems from happening
that we see out there in theworld, The real world, so to speak.
(01:02):
There's two big ones.
There's adding an anti gelchemical package to the fuel.
Or, diluting the fuel with kerosene.
So, first one, cold flow treatment.
Now you might hear such chemicalpackages referred to by different names.
Cold flow improver, antigel, orsome other kind of nomenclature.
(01:25):
These are packages, combinations,of multiple active ingredients.
Usually involving at leastsome version of a vinyl acetate
molecule as one of the components.
And they're formulated to act upon thewax crystals that come out of solution.
And to act on them in ways that mitigatethe problems those wax crystals would
(01:48):
cause if they were just left alone.
Now, the ways That these cold flowpackages act, they center on the
principles of keeping the wax crystalsdispersed and keeping them suspended.
Okay, let's talk about that.
If you have a bunch of individualwax crystals that appear in the fuel.
(02:10):
But something acts, or there's somethingelse in the fuel that's acting to keep
those crystals separate and away fromeach other, to keep them dispersed.
Well then they can't, by definition,they can't bump into each other,
they stay away from each other.
So they can't bump into each other,so they cannot actually grow bigger.
(02:30):
And so you've, if you do that,you've effectively got a bigger
margin of time to use the fueland to burn those wax crystals up.
Also if you've got somethingthat's keeping them from growing
bigger like that, that means thatby definition they stay smaller.
That means they can pass moreeasily through the fuel filter.
And that means less fuel filterplugging, less cold flow problems.
(02:53):
So that's keeping them dispersed, but alsokeeping them suspended is important too.
You want to keep them in suspendedbecause it does similar things.
If those wax crystals, they havecome out of solution, But instead of
dropping down, they've got somethingthat's keeping them uniformly suspended
throughout the volume of the fuel.
(03:14):
If you can do that, then A, theydon't fall into each other and,
you know, grow bigger that way.
But also, you don't get theproblematic wax buildup on the
fuel lines and on solid surfaces.
So the aim is to keep that waxdispersed evenly throughout the volume.
The body and the volume of the fuel.
(03:35):
The better you can do that, thefewer problems you're going to
end up with that commonly manifestthemselves as gelling problems.
Okay, so that's number one.
That's cold flow treatment.
Number two option is cutting itor diluting it with kerosene to
lower the cold filter plug point.
That's kind of the oldschool solution to all this.
(03:57):
Kerosene of course is number onediesel fuel, and kerosene by definition
contains substantially lower amounts ofparaffin wax content than the number two
diesel fuel that it's being added to.
Now kerosene lowerscoal filter plug point.
How does it do it?
Well it does it by diluting the paraffins.
(04:18):
There's no magic, there's no specificscience involved, it's actually
just simple dilution effects.
However Simple as it is, itworks, and that's why people
have done it for a long time.
Cutting with kerosene tends to bepreferred by people who operate
in really cold climates, sayAlaska, Canada, places like that.
(04:41):
And the reason that, the reason why theyprefer kerosene for those situations
instead of anti gel treatments isbecause as you get down to these
really, really cold temperatures, 30below, 40 below Fahrenheit, you, the
colder you get, you tend to have touse increasingly higher amounts of anti
gel to get the cold filter plug pointdown to those really cold temperatures.
(05:04):
Now, one thing we haven'tconsidered having laid out those
two options is, , What's the cost?
How much does it costto do either of these?
Well, there's a certain amountof it depends, but let's
talk about a few factors.
First, cold flow improvers tend to beB2B, business centric formulations.
And as such, they'reinherently cost sensitive.
(05:25):
Because if you manage fuel,it's in your financial interest
to prevent gelling problems.
But, the solution to that can't be tooexpensive if it's going to be workable.
For you, you should be able to expectagain, there's an, it depends when it
comes to costs, but it's reasonableto expect anti gel treatment to, for
(05:47):
you to be able to hit somewherebetween, , 10, 15 cents a gallon, maybe.
Exact figures depend on how much youuse and which specific one you use,
but that kind of gives you a ballpark.
Point here is, if you're looking atsomething marketed as an anti gel and it's
gonna cost you, I don't know, 50 centsa gallon to treat, well that's too much.
(06:07):
It should not cost as much as that.
Now, going back to kerosene, thecost for diluting ULSD with kerosene,
that depends on The cost differencebetween the kerosene and the anti
gel, and it depends on how muchkerosene you have to add to get
your fuel where you need it to be.
(06:28):
General rule is, when you talk about howmuch, if you need the lower cold filter
plug point temperature by five degreesFahrenheit, you are, should be able to
do that for every 10 percent volume.
of kerosene that you add to the fuel.
So, if you have a tank of fuelthat you want to get it lower by
(06:51):
25 degrees, well then, you mighthave to add 50 percent kerosene.
Now, most decent antigel formulationshould be able to achieve a 20, 25
degree drop at a reasonable treat rate.
If you live in Michigan, and youneed to drop your cold filter plug
point temperature by 25 degrees,maybe it costs you 15 cents a
(07:14):
gallon to do it with an antigel.
To do it by kerosene, kerosene typicallycosts about 40 cents per gallon more
than ultra low sulfur diesel fuel.
Now sometimes that difference isdropped as low as 20 cents higher,
but there's also been times whereit's been like a dollar higher.
So, let's say you need a 25 degree drop,so you have to use 50 percent kerosene,
(07:39):
that means your effective tree costis going to be 20 cents per gallon.
If the price difference betweenkerosene and number two ultra low
sulfur diesel is more than 40 cents,then your effective treat cost is
going to be more than 20 cents.
So, finally, question, when should youtreat your stored fuel, and how often?
(08:00):
, to do this, you need to lookat the temperature forecast.
You're looking for when the upcomingtemperatures are expected to drop
near or below the cloud point.
That's when the wax comes out.
So, you want to have your anti gel or yourkerosene in the fuel before that happens.
Now, remember, typical dieselfuel cloud points around 16, 17
(08:24):
degrees Fahrenheit, depending onif it's summer or winter diesel.
Now, given what you can and cannot knowfor sure about your fuel, you're going
to have to allow yourself a buffer.
You're going to actually going towant to treat or plan to treat when
you see the upcoming forecast todrop not below the cloud point, but
(08:44):
to within 10 degrees of that cloud.
Because remember, cloud pointsonly when the fuel is cloudy.
The wax is actually starting todrop out x degrees above that.
And so you want to make surethat you're prepared for that.
You want to aim, rule of thumb, youwant to aim for when the forecast says
the temperature is going to be, , inthe 25 to 30 degree Fahrenheit range.
(09:06):
If you do that, you're going tobe most prepared for, most of
the reasonable possibilities.
Also, definitely watch whetherthe temperature is forecast to
stay cold for consecutive days.
And also, whether the temperatureis anticipated to drop, remember,
sharply versus steadily.
As we pointed out before, both ofthose phenomena can have a marked
(09:29):
impact on when the fuel come, when,can have a marked impact on when
the wax comes out of your fuel, andtherefore when you need to treat.
And these temperature trends are notonly going to influence, when you
want to have your treatment in place.
They're also going to influence yourplanning through the rest of the season.
(09:50):
In the case of asking the question, ifyou need to retreat your fuel, sometimes
people ask that if I treat my fuelonce at the start of the season, am
I covered for the rest of the season?
The answer is actually it depends howmany times that, that treatment has
to act on waxes coming out of the fuel.
(10:11):
Chemical treatments like antigels, they act on those waxes
that are coming out of the fuel.
And in a sense, they get used up asthey respond to these gelling events.
So if you're in a winter season andyou have one or more gelling or clouding
events early in that season, it mightbe worth your while to consider topping
(10:32):
off your cold flow treatment so thatyou don't get caught by surprise later
in the season if it happens again.
Because, we've all seen that theweather is more and more predictable.
We've all seen that the weatheris more and more unpredictable
in recent years, and you don'twant to get caught unprepared.
So treating your fuel to protect againstanti jell is relatively inexpensive
(10:55):
to do compared to the financial costof having a jelling problem that
shuts down operations of whateverkind of engine you're in charge with.
So, that is the story behind howand when you should protect your
stored diesel fuel against anti jell.
Whether you dilute it with kerosene oryou use a cold flow improver, you want to
plan to put it in your stored fuel whenthe temperature forecasts call for a drop
(11:20):
into the 25 to 30 degree Fahrenheit range.
Thanks for joining me today.
If you liked what you heard ontoday's podcast and you haven't done
so already, feel free to subscribe.
Feel free to subscribe at your podcastplatform of choice, whether that's
iTunes, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, orwherever else you'd like to listen.
(11:40):
And leave us a review if youcan, because that really does
help other people find us.
So, till next time, I am EricBurenstead, thank you for joining
us, and we'll see you next timeat the Viewer Pulse Show Podcast.
Welcome to the Fuel Pulse Showpodcast where we talk about all
things fuel for all kinds of people.
I'm your host Eric Bjornstadand I'll be your guide through
the ever changing world of fuel.
Today, we are continuing our FuelPulse show back to school episodes,
where we go back and we dig intobasic building blocks of fuel care.
(00:21):
And we've been talking recentlyabout considerations behind
preventing winter gelling problemsin stored ultra low sulfur diesel.
Now in past episodes, we talked abouthow diesel fuels get gelling problems.
because of the effect that cold wintertemperatures have on their ability
to keep their wax content soluble.
(00:42):
We also talked previously aboutthe temperatures where you might
expect problems to show up at.
Now, we wouldn't be talking aboutall these problems if there weren't
solutions to help with them.
The common options to preventgelling problems from happening
that we see out there in theworld, The real world, so to speak.
(01:02):
There's two big ones.
There's adding an anti gelchemical package to the fuel.
Or, diluting the fuel with kerosene.
So, first one, cold flow treatment.
Now you might hear such chemicalpackages referred to by different names.
Cold flow improver, antigel, orsome other kind of nomenclature.
(01:25):
These are packages, combinations,of multiple active ingredients.
Usually involving at leastsome version of a vinyl acetate
molecule as one of the components.
And they're formulated to act upon thewax crystals that come out of solution.
And to act on them in ways that mitigatethe problems those wax crystals would
(01:48):
cause if they were just left alone.
Now, the ways That these cold flowpackages act, they center on the
principles of keeping the wax crystalsdispersed and keeping them suspended.
Okay, let's talk about that.
If you have a bunch of individualwax crystals that appear in the fuel.
(02:10):
But something acts, or there's somethingelse in the fuel that's acting to keep
those crystals separate and away fromeach other, to keep them dispersed.
Well then they can't, by definition,they can't bump into each other,
they stay away from each other.
So they can't bump into each other,so they cannot actually grow bigger.
(02:30):
And so you've, if you do that,you've effectively got a bigger
margin of time to use the fueland to burn those wax crystals up.
Also if you've got somethingthat's keeping them from growing
bigger like that, that means thatby definition they stay smaller.
That means they can pass moreeasily through the fuel filter.
And that means less fuel filterplugging, less cold flow problems.
(02:53):
So that's keeping them dispersed, but alsokeeping them suspended is important too.
You want to keep them in suspendedbecause it does similar things.
If those wax crystals, they havecome out of solution, But instead of
dropping down, they've got somethingthat's keeping them uniformly suspended
throughout the volume of the fuel.
(03:14):
If you can do that, then A, theydon't fall into each other and,
you know, grow bigger that way.
But also, you don't get theproblematic wax buildup on the
fuel lines and on solid surfaces.
So the aim is to keep that waxdispersed evenly throughout the volume.
The body and the volume of the fuel.
(03:35):
The better you can do that, thefewer problems you're going to
end up with that commonly manifestthemselves as gelling problems.
Okay, so that's number one.
That's cold flow treatment.
Number two option is cutting itor diluting it with kerosene to
lower the cold filter plug point.
That's kind of the oldschool solution to all this.
(03:57):
Kerosene of course is number onediesel fuel, and kerosene by definition
contains substantially lower amounts ofparaffin wax content than the number two
diesel fuel that it's being added to.
Now kerosene lowerscoal filter plug point.
How does it do it?
Well it does it by diluting the paraffins.
(04:18):
There's no magic, there's no specificscience involved, it's actually
just simple dilution effects.
However Simple as it is, itworks, and that's why people
have done it for a long time.
Cutting with kerosene tends to bepreferred by people who operate
in really cold climates, sayAlaska, Canada, places like that.
(04:41):
And the reason that, the reason why theyprefer kerosene for those situations
instead of anti gel treatments isbecause as you get down to these
really, really cold temperatures, 30below, 40 below Fahrenheit, you, the
colder you get, you tend to have touse increasingly higher amounts of anti
gel to get the cold filter plug pointdown to those really cold temperatures.
(05:04):
Now, one thing we haven'tconsidered having laid out those
two options is, , What's the cost?
How much does it costto do either of these?
Well, there's a certain amountof it depends, but let's
talk about a few factors.
First, cold flow improvers tend to beB2B, business centric formulations.
And as such, they'reinherently cost sensitive.
(05:25):
Because if you manage fuel,it's in your financial interest
to prevent gelling problems.
But, the solution to that can't be tooexpensive if it's going to be workable.
For you, you should be able to expectagain, there's an, it depends when it
comes to costs, but it's reasonableto expect anti gel treatment to, for
(05:47):
you to be able to hit somewherebetween, , 10, 15 cents a gallon, maybe.
Exact figures depend on how much youuse and which specific one you use,
but that kind of gives you a ballpark.
Point here is, if you're looking atsomething marketed as an anti gel and it's
gonna cost you, I don't know, 50 centsa gallon to treat, well that's too much.
(06:07):
It should not cost as much as that.
Now, going back to kerosene, thecost for diluting ULSD with kerosene,
that depends on The cost differencebetween the kerosene and the anti
gel, and it depends on how muchkerosene you have to add to get
your fuel where you need it to be.
(06:28):
General rule is, when you talk about howmuch, if you need the lower cold filter
plug point temperature by five degreesFahrenheit, you are, should be able to
do that for every 10 percent volume.
of kerosene that you add to the fuel.
So, if you have a tank of fuelthat you want to get it lower by
(06:51):
25 degrees, well then, you mighthave to add 50 percent kerosene.
Now, most decent antigel formulationshould be able to achieve a 20, 25
degree drop at a reasonable treat rate.
If you live in Michigan, and youneed to drop your cold filter plug
point temperature by 25 degrees,maybe it costs you 15 cents a
(07:14):
gallon to do it with an antigel.
To do it by kerosene, kerosene typicallycosts about 40 cents per gallon more
than ultra low sulfur diesel fuel.
Now sometimes that difference isdropped as low as 20 cents higher,
but there's also been times whereit's been like a dollar higher.
So, let's say you need a 25 degree drop,so you have to use 50 percent kerosene,
(07:39):
that means your effective tree costis going to be 20 cents per gallon.
If the price difference betweenkerosene and number two ultra low
sulfur diesel is more than 40 cents,then your effective treat cost is
going to be more than 20 cents.
So, finally, question, when should youtreat your stored fuel, and how often?
(08:00):
, to do this, you need to lookat the temperature forecast.
You're looking for when the upcomingtemperatures are expected to drop
near or below the cloud point.
That's when the wax comes out.
So, you want to have your anti gel or yourkerosene in the fuel before that happens.
Now, remember, typical dieselfuel cloud points around 16, 17
(08:24):
degrees Fahrenheit, depending onif it's summer or winter diesel.
Now, given what you can and cannot knowfor sure about your fuel, you're going
to have to allow yourself a buffer.
You're going to actually going towant to treat or plan to treat when
you see the upcoming forecast todrop not below the cloud point, but
(08:44):
to within 10 degrees of that cloud.
Because remember, cloud pointsonly when the fuel is cloudy.
The wax is actually starting todrop out x degrees above that.
And so you want to make surethat you're prepared for that.
You want to aim, rule of thumb, youwant to aim for when the forecast says
the temperature is going to be, , inthe 25 to 30 degree Fahrenheit range.
(09:06):
If you do that, you're going tobe most prepared for, most of
the reasonable possibilities.
Also, definitely watch whetherthe temperature is forecast to
stay cold for consecutive days.
And also, whether the temperatureis anticipated to drop, remember,
sharply versus steadily.
As we pointed out before, both ofthose phenomena can have a marked
(09:29):
impact on when the fuel come, when,can have a marked impact on when
the wax comes out of your fuel, andtherefore when you need to treat.
And these temperature trends are notonly going to influence, when you
want to have your treatment in place.
They're also going to influence yourplanning through the rest of the season.
(09:50):
In the case of asking the question, ifyou need to retreat your fuel, sometimes
people ask that if I treat my fuelonce at the start of the season, am
I covered for the rest of the season?
The answer is actually it depends howmany times that, that treatment has
to act on waxes coming out of the fuel.
(10:11):
Chemical treatments like antigels, they act on those waxes
that are coming out of the fuel.
And in a sense, they get used up asthey respond to these gelling events.
So if you're in a winter season andyou have one or more gelling or clouding
events early in that season, it mightbe worth your while to consider topping
(10:32):
off your cold flow treatment so thatyou don't get caught by surprise later
in the season if it happens again.
Because, we've all seen that theweather is more and more predictable.
We've all seen that the weatheris more and more unpredictable
in recent years, and you don'twant to get caught unprepared.
So treating your fuel to protect againstanti jell is relatively inexpensive
(10:55):
to do compared to the financial costof having a jelling problem that
shuts down operations of whateverkind of engine you're in charge with.
So, that is the story behind howand when you should protect your
stored diesel fuel against anti jell.
Whether you dilute it with kerosene oryou use a cold flow improver, you want to
plan to put it in your stored fuel whenthe temperature forecasts call for a drop
(11:20):
into the 25 to 30 degree Fahrenheit range.
Thanks for joining me today.
If you liked what you heard ontoday's podcast and you haven't done
so already, feel free to subscribe.
Feel free to subscribe at your podcastplatform of choice, whether that's
iTunes, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, orwherever else you'd like to listen.
(11:40):
And leave us a review if youcan, because that really does
help other people find us.
So, till next time, I am EricBurenstead, thank you for joining
us, and we'll see you next timeat the Viewer Pulse Show Podcast.
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