December 4, 2024 • 11 mins
This episode explores proper fuel sampling techniques and locations for different types of fuel testing. Erik Bjornstad explains how contaminants concentrate at tank bottoms, making sampling location crucial for accurate test results. He details specific sampling heights for different tests, introduces the bacon bomb sampler, and provides guidance on sample handling.
The episode covers testing for physical properties, microbial contamination, and water content, emphasizing that bottom samples (3-6 inches from bottom) provide the best diagnostic value for comprehensive testing. The discussion includes proper container selection and sample preservation techniques.
What You'll Learn:
- How sampling location affects test accuracy
- Proper usage of a bacon bomb sampler
- Best sampling depths for different fuel tests
- Sample handling and preservation techniques
- Container selection for different test types
- Methods for measuring tank depth
- Best practices for comprehensive fuel testing
Ideas Worth Sharing:
Here are three notable quotes from the podcast episode:
- "Where you sample from in a fuel tank can have a big impact on the test results that you get from that sample."
- "For stability testing, we prefer a bottom sample for that."
- "A bacon bomb is a non-sparking metal cylinder... probably the most commonly used thing for taking fuel samples in the industry."
Resources Mentioned:
- Bacon bomb sampler
- Bell Performance sampling attachments (3-inch, 6-inch, and 12-inch)
- ASTM visual inspection standards
- Erik Bjornstad: LinkedIn
Show Notes:
[00:00:00] Introduction to fuel sampling best practices
[00:01:45] Discussion of sampling locations for different tests
[00:02:00] Physical properties testing locations
[00:03:00] Microbial contamination sampling
[00:04:00] Water and sediment testing requirements
[00:05:00] Sampling equipment and techniques
[00:05:30] Bacon bomb sampler demonstration
[00:08:00] Sample container recommendations
[00:09:30] Best practices for multiple tests
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
(00:03):
things fuel for all kinds of people.
I'm your host Eric Bjornstad andtoday I'll be your guide through
the ever changing world of fuel.
We've been doing a series of episodeshere on the podcast that we call the fuel
pulse show back to school and there'sshort Episodes talking about essential
issues for fuel management and in ourprevious episode we talked about fuel
(00:26):
sampling We talked about how where yousample from in a fuel tank can have a
big impact on The test results that youget from that sample contaminants like
water and gas microbial contamination.
They concentrate themselves at thebottom of the tank, which means if you
(00:46):
need to do a test to detect or measurethose kinds of contaminants using a
top or a middle sample, isn't reallygoing to give you useful results.
In fact, if you were to make thatmistake, that could end up being costly
because you would probably just endup getting a false negative reading,
which means you would end up not takingaction when in fact you have a problem
(01:10):
that you do need to take action on.
So now that we are clear on that, thequestion is, where's the best place
to take a sample from if you need torun If you need to have a certain kind
of test run, well, again, where youshould sample from depends on what
you need to do, what kind of test youintend to have done using that sample.
(01:34):
So let's run through some common fuelproperties that they test for and
see where the best kind of samplewould come from to do that test.
Okay, first we have six teststhat we can group together.
Flashpoint, distillation, cetane value,viscosity, and cold flow or cloud point.
(01:56):
These are all physical properties orcombustion property tests to test for
these, a top sample or a middle samplewill actually work just fine because
these kind of fuel properties, they don'tchange or vary much from Fuel at the top
of the tank to the bottom of the tank.
They don't vary in the same waythat something like water content
(02:19):
or sediment content would varyfrom top of the tank to the bottom.
So top or middle are finefor those kind of tests.
What about oxidative stabilityor thermal stability?
Well, you could test this with a top ora middle sample, but we would actually
defer to using a bottom sample for thesebecause More of the heavier oxidative
(02:43):
precursor molecules, more of those arelikely to be concentrated down near the
bottom of the tank than up near the top.
So, for stability testing, weprefer a bottom sample for that.
Microbial contamination.
To do testing for microbialcontamination, you definitely want
to use a bottom sample for this.
(03:03):
But remember, bottom sample does notmean dead bottom right off the bottom.
It means three to sixinches from the bottom.
Microbes tend to concentrate themselvesnear the interface between the The layer
of free water that builds up at thebottom of the tank and the fuel above it.
So ideally, when you're doing asample, taking a sample, you want to
(03:25):
try and get some of that interfacebetween the two layers in your sample.
And then a good testing technicianwill see that, and they will use that
in their microbial testing to try andgive you the most accurate results.
Water and sediment testing andwater by Carl Fisher testing.
For these very important tests.
(03:46):
You need to use a bottom sample.
Middle samples or top samples,they're simply not going to give you
the diagnostic value that you needbecause your water content tends to be
concentrated, again, down near the bottom.
And so you need a sample froman area where that's going to
be more likely to reflect that.
Okay, so, We know nowwhere to take samples from.
(04:09):
What about how to take samples?
Well, there are two, I would say, broadcategories of ways to take a sample.
Now, let's say you have an AST,an above ground storage tank.
And let's say it has asampling port on the outside.
Well, you could just simply take asample from that, put it directly
into your sampling container.
(04:30):
You could do that.
That kind of sample, if you were to dothat, likely would qualify as a middle
sample, depending on exactly how far upfrom the bottom that the port's pickup is.
But we would actually recommend not usinga sampling port like that, because if
you do, you're going to end up with Don'thave any control over exactly how far down
(04:54):
or exactly where your samples actuallycoming from what you really need to do.
And this would be the recommendation.
What you really need to do isyou need to use a fuel sampler,
sometimes known in the industry as.
A bacon bomb.
Now, a bacon bomb is a nonsparking metal cylinder, and
it looks something like this.
(05:15):
And this is probably the most commonlyused thing for taking fuel samples
in the industry, so you would lowerit down the fuel and it's going to
have rope that's going to attach hereand it's going to have another piece
of rope that attaches elsewhere.
And so you're going to use the ropeto lower it down into your fuel
(05:37):
depth from the top of the tank.
And once you've got it where youwant it to be, you're going to
pull the string and it's going toopen this chamber at the bottom and
your sample is going to rush up.
and fill a chamber that's inside of here.
Then when you've got it, you pull it upand then you open it and you empty that
(05:57):
sample into a clean sampling container.
Now, speaking of depth, how do you get afuel sampler to the depth that you need?
, there are a couple of ways to do that.
Now, if you have a conventional baconbomb like this one, you would use a
tank measuring stick to first measurethe depth of the tank from the port
(06:21):
that you're going to be lowering down.
See how far down that depth is.
Now once you have that measurementwith your measuring stick,
you can mark off on that cord.
How far down you need to lower it sothat it settles in the bottom middle
or the middle or, six inches offthe bottom or however you need to be.
Conversely, let's say you'redoing a bottom sample.
(06:43):
You need to do a bottom sample.
You know that you want toget it three to six inches.
What you can actually do is youcan lower it down until you feel
it hit the bottom of the tank.
Then what you would do is you couldthen raise it back up to the top.
three to six inches and you'vegot it at the right height.
So there are a number ofways to do it that way.
(07:06):
there is, however, an easierway even than that to do it.
And that is to have a bacon bombthat actually has attachments
that screw into the end.
Now, one of the ones that let's say BellPerformance has, it has specially designed
attachments are of differing lengths.
(07:28):
It has a three inch attachment, a sixinch attachment and a 12 inch attachment.
And so let's say you need to do asample six inches off the bottom.
You would take the six inchattachment and you would actually
screw it into the bottom.
And then when you lower it, down whenit hits the bottom, it's at six inches.
It's not exactly the rightheight that you need it to be at.
(07:51):
And so you're going to get goodconsistency with your results.
Okay.
So that's the best way to take a sample.
Now, what about some other considerations?
Well, definitely you want to use cleansample containers for your fuel samples
so that you don't contaminate them.
This is especially importantif you're doing micro testing
for microbial contamination.
(08:11):
Now, Typically, a mason jar actuallywill work just fine for this, and a
mason jar is actually better to use thanone of those less clear plastic sample
containers, if you want to be able tosee your sample and do, let's say, an
ASTM visual inspection, because glass isactually the preferred medium for that.
(08:35):
For looking through, because it givesyou a better view of whether the fuel
is clean or bright, it's also a goodidea, and this is more of a logistics
thing, it's also a good idea to pre labelyour sample containers before you start.
Because when you're elbow deep and workingin stuff on the top of a tank, The less
(08:55):
you have to worry about doing, the better.
And, if you're taking a sample that youintend to have a microbial testing done
on it, the recommendation would be, takethe sample, put it on ice, in a cooler,
until you get back to a place, until youget out of the field, and you get back
to a place where you have a refrigerator.
(09:16):
You can stash the sample in therefrigerator until you're ready
to send it off for testing.
Because the object there is you wantto preserve the microbial population
in your sample as much as possible.
The best way to do that isto keep your sample cold.
Okay.
Last thing we want to talk about.
Remember earlier we ran through differentfuel tests and we discussed the best
(09:39):
place in the tank to sample from.
If you were going to have aparticular kind of test done,
we said a C 10 test sample.
could be done well from a topsample or a middle sample.
A water and sediment test, youreally needed a bottom sample.
But what if, what if you're doing,you're pulling a sample to have a
(09:59):
bunch of different kinds of tests done?
Let's say you have a yearly testslate that involves a bunch of
these different kinds of tests.
you only want to submit one sample.
So what's the best place to pullfrom to do that kind of test length?
Well, for that kind of situation,we would default to a bottom sample,
(10:21):
three to six inches from the bottom.
That kind of sample is going to havethe most, the best diagnostic value,
all kinds of testing considered.
If you do that, you'll be all right.
And so that's going to do it fortoday's Fuel Pulse show, back to
school, quick dive into the issue offuel sampling, how to sample and how
(10:43):
to handle your samples for testing.
If you like what you heard, you haven'tdone so already, feel free to subscribe
at your podcast platform of choice.
Whether that's iTunes, Stitcher,Amazon podcast, wherever you happen
to like to listen, and leave usa review if you can, because that
really does help people find us.
So until next time, I'm Eric Bierenstedt,thank you for joining us, and I'll
(11:06):
see you next time for the next episodeof The Fuel Pulse Show Podcast.
Welcome to the Fuel Pulse Showpodcast, where we talk about all
(00:03):
things fuel for all kinds of people.
I'm your host Eric Bjornstad andtoday I'll be your guide through
the ever changing world of fuel.
We've been doing a series of episodeshere on the podcast that we call the fuel
pulse show back to school and there'sshort Episodes talking about essential
issues for fuel management and in ourprevious episode we talked about fuel
(00:26):
sampling We talked about how where yousample from in a fuel tank can have a
big impact on The test results that youget from that sample contaminants like
water and gas microbial contamination.
They concentrate themselves at thebottom of the tank, which means if you
(00:46):
need to do a test to detect or measurethose kinds of contaminants using a
top or a middle sample, isn't reallygoing to give you useful results.
In fact, if you were to make thatmistake, that could end up being costly
because you would probably just endup getting a false negative reading,
which means you would end up not takingaction when in fact you have a problem
(01:10):
that you do need to take action on.
So now that we are clear on that, thequestion is, where's the best place
to take a sample from if you need torun If you need to have a certain kind
of test run, well, again, where youshould sample from depends on what
you need to do, what kind of test youintend to have done using that sample.
(01:34):
So let's run through some common fuelproperties that they test for and
see where the best kind of samplewould come from to do that test.
Okay, first we have six teststhat we can group together.
Flashpoint, distillation, cetane value,viscosity, and cold flow or cloud point.
(01:56):
These are all physical properties orcombustion property tests to test for
these, a top sample or a middle samplewill actually work just fine because
these kind of fuel properties, they don'tchange or vary much from Fuel at the top
of the tank to the bottom of the tank.
They don't vary in the same waythat something like water content
(02:19):
or sediment content would varyfrom top of the tank to the bottom.
So top or middle are finefor those kind of tests.
What about oxidative stabilityor thermal stability?
Well, you could test this with a top ora middle sample, but we would actually
defer to using a bottom sample for thesebecause More of the heavier oxidative
(02:43):
precursor molecules, more of those arelikely to be concentrated down near the
bottom of the tank than up near the top.
So, for stability testing, weprefer a bottom sample for that.
Microbial contamination.
To do testing for microbialcontamination, you definitely want
to use a bottom sample for this.
(03:03):
But remember, bottom sample does notmean dead bottom right off the bottom.
It means three to sixinches from the bottom.
Microbes tend to concentrate themselvesnear the interface between the The layer
of free water that builds up at thebottom of the tank and the fuel above it.
So ideally, when you're doing asample, taking a sample, you want to
(03:25):
try and get some of that interfacebetween the two layers in your sample.
And then a good testing technicianwill see that, and they will use that
in their microbial testing to try andgive you the most accurate results.
Water and sediment testing andwater by Carl Fisher testing.
For these very important tests.
(03:46):
You need to use a bottom sample.
Middle samples or top samples,they're simply not going to give you
the diagnostic value that you needbecause your water content tends to be
concentrated, again, down near the bottom.
And so you need a sample froman area where that's going to
be more likely to reflect that.
Okay, so, We know nowwhere to take samples from.
(04:09):
What about how to take samples?
Well, there are two, I would say, broadcategories of ways to take a sample.
Now, let's say you have an AST,an above ground storage tank.
And let's say it has asampling port on the outside.
Well, you could just simply take asample from that, put it directly
into your sampling container.
(04:30):
You could do that.
That kind of sample, if you were to dothat, likely would qualify as a middle
sample, depending on exactly how far upfrom the bottom that the port's pickup is.
But we would actually recommend not usinga sampling port like that, because if
you do, you're going to end up with Don'thave any control over exactly how far down
(04:54):
or exactly where your samples actuallycoming from what you really need to do.
And this would be the recommendation.
What you really need to do isyou need to use a fuel sampler,
sometimes known in the industry as.
A bacon bomb.
Now, a bacon bomb is a nonsparking metal cylinder, and
it looks something like this.
(05:15):
And this is probably the most commonlyused thing for taking fuel samples
in the industry, so you would lowerit down the fuel and it's going to
have rope that's going to attach hereand it's going to have another piece
of rope that attaches elsewhere.
And so you're going to use the ropeto lower it down into your fuel
(05:37):
depth from the top of the tank.
And once you've got it where youwant it to be, you're going to
pull the string and it's going toopen this chamber at the bottom and
your sample is going to rush up.
and fill a chamber that's inside of here.
Then when you've got it, you pull it upand then you open it and you empty that
(05:57):
sample into a clean sampling container.
Now, speaking of depth, how do you get afuel sampler to the depth that you need?
, there are a couple of ways to do that.
Now, if you have a conventional baconbomb like this one, you would use a
tank measuring stick to first measurethe depth of the tank from the port
(06:21):
that you're going to be lowering down.
See how far down that depth is.
Now once you have that measurementwith your measuring stick,
you can mark off on that cord.
How far down you need to lower it sothat it settles in the bottom middle
or the middle or, six inches offthe bottom or however you need to be.
Conversely, let's say you'redoing a bottom sample.
(06:43):
You need to do a bottom sample.
You know that you want toget it three to six inches.
What you can actually do is youcan lower it down until you feel
it hit the bottom of the tank.
Then what you would do is you couldthen raise it back up to the top.
three to six inches and you'vegot it at the right height.
So there are a number ofways to do it that way.
(07:06):
there is, however, an easierway even than that to do it.
And that is to have a bacon bombthat actually has attachments
that screw into the end.
Now, one of the ones that let's say BellPerformance has, it has specially designed
attachments are of differing lengths.
(07:28):
It has a three inch attachment, a sixinch attachment and a 12 inch attachment.
And so let's say you need to do asample six inches off the bottom.
You would take the six inchattachment and you would actually
screw it into the bottom.
And then when you lower it, down whenit hits the bottom, it's at six inches.
It's not exactly the rightheight that you need it to be at.
(07:51):
And so you're going to get goodconsistency with your results.
Okay.
So that's the best way to take a sample.
Now, what about some other considerations?
Well, definitely you want to use cleansample containers for your fuel samples
so that you don't contaminate them.
This is especially importantif you're doing micro testing
for microbial contamination.
(08:11):
Now, Typically, a mason jar actuallywill work just fine for this, and a
mason jar is actually better to use thanone of those less clear plastic sample
containers, if you want to be able tosee your sample and do, let's say, an
ASTM visual inspection, because glass isactually the preferred medium for that.
(08:35):
For looking through, because it givesyou a better view of whether the fuel
is clean or bright, it's also a goodidea, and this is more of a logistics
thing, it's also a good idea to pre labelyour sample containers before you start.
Because when you're elbow deep and workingin stuff on the top of a tank, The less
(08:55):
you have to worry about doing, the better.
And, if you're taking a sample that youintend to have a microbial testing done
on it, the recommendation would be, takethe sample, put it on ice, in a cooler,
until you get back to a place, until youget out of the field, and you get back
to a place where you have a refrigerator.
(09:16):
You can stash the sample in therefrigerator until you're ready
to send it off for testing.
Because the object there is you wantto preserve the microbial population
in your sample as much as possible.
The best way to do that isto keep your sample cold.
Okay.
Last thing we want to talk about.
Remember earlier we ran through differentfuel tests and we discussed the best
(09:39):
place in the tank to sample from.
If you were going to have aparticular kind of test done,
we said a C 10 test sample.
could be done well from a topsample or a middle sample.
A water and sediment test, youreally needed a bottom sample.
But what if, what if you're doing,you're pulling a sample to have a
(09:59):
bunch of different kinds of tests done?
Let's say you have a yearly testslate that involves a bunch of
these different kinds of tests.
you only want to submit one sample.
So what's the best place to pullfrom to do that kind of test length?
Well, for that kind of situation,we would default to a bottom sample,
(10:21):
three to six inches from the bottom.
That kind of sample is going to havethe most, the best diagnostic value,
all kinds of testing considered.
If you do that, you'll be all right.
And so that's going to do it fortoday's Fuel Pulse show, back to
school, quick dive into the issue offuel sampling, how to sample and how
(10:43):
to handle your samples for testing.
If you like what you heard, you haven'tdone so already, feel free to subscribe
at your podcast platform of choice.
Whether that's iTunes, Stitcher,Amazon podcast, wherever you happen
to like to listen, and leave usa review if you can, because that
really does help people find us.
So until next time, I'm Eric Bierenstedt,thank you for joining us, and I'll
(11:06):
see you next time for the next episodeof The Fuel Pulse Show Podcast.
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