April 9, 2025 • 30 mins
In Episode 73 of the Fuel Pulse Show podcast, host Erik Bjornstad tackles a common misconception in fuel storage management: that quick turn fuel systems are immune to microbial contamination.
He explains how microbes can flourish in both slow turn (fuel stored for months or years) and quick turn systems (fuel cycled within days or weeks), as contamination resides not just in the fuel but in biofilms on tank surfaces.
The episode outlines practical steps to prevent and address microbial growth including regular sampling, biannual testing, water removal, and proper biocide treatment with EPA-registered products.
What You'll Learn:
- The difference between quick turn (high turn) and slow turn (low turn) fuel storage
- Why quick turn fuel tanks are not immune to microbial contamination
- How microbes establish biofilms on tank surfaces regardless of fuel turnover rate
- The consequences of ignoring microbial contamination (clogged filters, tank corrosion)
- Practical steps to prevent and address microbial growth in fuel storage systems
- Why water removal alone is insufficient to eliminate established microbial contamination
- The importance of using EPA-registered biocides for effective treatment
Ideas Worth Sharing:
Here are three notable quotes from the podcast episode:
- "The issue isn't just the fuel, the issue's also with the tank and the storage system itself... The chance of problems developing does not rest simply on the fact that the fuel gets used up and keeps getting changed quickly. It matters more that the tank itself does not change."
- "Microbial contamination doesn't need the same fuel sitting in there undisturbed for months... All it needs is water and opportunity, and that they're going to get that both in a quick turn and a slow turn situation."
- "The reality is that simply removing the water out of a system will not eliminate microbial contamination if microbial contamination is established in your tank. It will not go away simply if you remove the water. That is a myth that has had been held over from multiple decades in the past."
Resources Mentioned:
- Bell Performance testing kit
- Bellicide
- Erik Bjornstad: LinkedIn
Show Notes:
[00:00:00] Introduction to the Fuel Pulse Show podcast and host Erik Bjornstad
[00:01:00] Overview of businesses that rely on stored fuel (police, fire, utilities, telecoms, data centers, hospitals, fleets, agriculture)
[00:02:00] Seasonal shifts in fuel management concerns from winter to spring/summer
[00:03:00] Definition of quick turn (high turn) fuel users - fuel moves quickly through tanks
[00:04:00] Introduction to the myth that microbial problems don't affect high turn fuel
[00:05:00] Explanation of why quick turn fuel is not immune to microbial contamination
[00:07:00] Examples of businesses using stored fuel and importance of fuel quality
[00:08:00] Detailed explanation of low turn vs. high turn fuel usage patterns
[00:10:00] Discussion of common misconception about quick turn fuel and microbes
[00:12:00] Key insight: microbial contamination exists on tank surfaces, not just in fuel
[00:14:00] How biofilms form and persist regardless of fuel turnover
[00:15:00] How fuel drops can stir up and spread existing microbial contamination
[
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Welcome to the Fuel Pulse Showpodcast, where we talk about all
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.
So here at the Fuel Pulse Showpodcast, we talk about issues
surrounding all the different kindsof fuel that power American business.
(00:21):
And American life and all thethings that we want and need to do.
And so we also talk about all thedifferent things that use that fuel.
Again, both at work and but also at home.
That means a fuel pulse show podcastis really intended for everybody.
And so with that in mind, whatare we going to talk about?
On today's episode, many of the folksin our audience have something to do with
(00:44):
stored fuel in their professional lives.
Lots of different kinds ofbusinesses, lots of industries,
they keep stored fuel around insome capacity because they need it.
Police stations, fire stations, utilities,telecoms, and data centers are big ones.
Hospitals and healthcarefacilities, obviously fleets.
And then also don't forgetagriculture and farming.
(01:08):
These areas are all big ones when itcomes to the role that stored fuel plays
in helping them do what they need to do.
And we are coming out of the winter,heading into the spring where the
temperatures are warming up, andso the focus for these operations
managers that manage these fuels, thatfocus is really shifting away from.
(01:33):
, how do I keep cold weather jellingproblems from happening in my fuel to now?
How do I keep.
Other things from happening in my fuelso that I don't have problems in the
spring and in the hot summer months.
Right?
So all these users, they'rethinking about that kind of thing.
They all keep stored fuel around insome fashion because they need it.
(01:56):
Many of them keep it aroundas, say, emergency backup fuel,
depending on the scenario.
That fuel, that stored fuel that theyhave that can sit in storage for, could
be relatively long periods of time.
Could be a year, couldbe two years, maybe more.
(02:17):
Sitting in there waiting to be used.
On the other end of the spectrumthough, you've also got people, and
this is especially true when you'retalking about private fleets and also
what we call retail fuel distributors.
These folks are on the oppositeother end of the spectrum.
They store fuel, but they don't keepit around for years or even months.
(02:41):
Their fuel tends to move.
In and out of the storage tank almost asfast as they can get in in there, right?
Think about truck and busfleets that fill up every day,
, the bus goes around town, does itsroute, comes in at the end of the day,
fills up from a central fuel storagetank at that installation so that
it's ready to go for the next day.
(03:02):
And that kind of place, that placegoes through fuel really quickly.
The fuel that they havein that fuel storage tank.
Is not gonna be sittingin there for very long.
It's gonna be used up pretty quickly.
It's not uncommon for a gas stationto get at least a couple of fuel
drops a week and you can get a truckstop that happens to be pretty busy.
(03:24):
They'll get a fuel delivery a day,maybe multiple fuel drops a day
when they're really busy, right?
Those users are consideredquick turn or high turn.
Fuel users because the fuel doesn'tsit in the tank for very long.
It gets used up, pretty quickly.
So today what we wanna do iswe wanna tackle one of the
(03:44):
biggest myths in fuel storage.
And it's a myth that has to dowith differences between this low
turn fuel and this high turn fuel.
We're talking about the idea thatmicrobial problems are not a concern.
In high turn fuel storage tanks.
(04:05):
It's well known that when you have.
Stored fuel, and it's sits in a tank,a storage tank for months or years.
Long term stored fuel.
It's well known that that kind of fuelhas a relatively high risk of eventually
developing microbial contamination.
But can you say the same thing aboutquick turn fuel is the same thing
(04:27):
true about fuel that moves in, goesinto the tank, and then gets used up.
Going out of the tank in a matter notof months or years, but days or weeks.
Is it also true about that kind of fuel?
And the thing is, many fuel professionalsassume that quick turn fuel just
doesn't sit in the tank long enoughto develop microbial problems.
(04:50):
After all the fuel's always beingused and being replaced by new fuel,
on a relatively constant basis.
How could microbes havetime to grow in that fuel?
Well, that assumption that you don'tneed to worry about microbial problems
in that kind of fuel, that assumption isa lot more wrong than you might think.
(05:11):
So today we're gonna explain whyquick turn fuel is not immune
to microbial contamination.
In some cases, we're gonna see how quickturn fuel can actually cause situations
which accelerate microbial spread.
So.
Let's dive into this now, before we getinto the nuances of quick turn versus slow
(05:35):
turn fuel, let's talk about who actuallyuses these kinds of stored fuel and
why maintaining that or protecting thatfuel's quality is so important to them.
We already briefly went through thesewhen we were rattling out the list
of people that used stored fuel, sohospitals and healthcare facilities.
Virtually all of these will haveemergency backup generator systems.
(05:58):
They're required to have those, and thosesystems need clean, viable, inspect diesel
fuel so that they can be sure to functionif something happens like a power failure.
Police and fire stations, theseall will typically have onsite fuel
reserves so that they can keep theiroperations and their operation centers,
(06:20):
their vehicles operational again.
If an emergency happens, data centersand telecom, these rely on backup fuel,
very important for their backup fuel tobe there to prevent business downtime
and to keep their servers running.
Data centers is one of those markets thatis just growing and growing and growing.
(06:41):
Number of data centers across thecountries is, I think, projected
to, increase by four times.
In just within the next five years.
And that's because of thegrowth of things like ai.
And so four times more data centersis gonna mean four times more backup
fuel and four times more potentialdeveloping microbial problems that
(07:04):
need to be managed and controlled.
And then of course, since we mentionedtelecom, think about all the cell towers
that you see all across the fruited plane.
Every single one of those cell towers has.
A backup generator that has a fuelstorage tank that has fuel in it
that needs to be maintained becauseagain, they can't afford to go down.
(07:29):
They have to ensure that they're online.
And so there's a lot of stored fuelfor those kind of operations trucks
and bus fleets already mentioned.
Those already mentionedfact, many large fleets.
And we'll maintain these large on sitebulk fuel storage tanks so that they can
have easy refueling of those vehicles.
(07:51):
And then another one, we also mentionedgas stations and retail fuel distributors.
These are the facilities thatare probably the prototypical
examples of quick turn fuel.
They will cycle through highvolumes of fuel constantly.
They have to, that's theirbusiness model, right?
(08:11):
So again, not uncommon for them to getone or more fuel drops a day, right?
Depending on how quickly the fuelgets used up, it's either gonna be
low turn fuel or high turn fuel.
Low turn fuel more specifically,is considered to be fuel
that sits in storage for.
(08:33):
Multiple months.
And then of course that can goall the way up to years, but it's
at least multiple months of time.
And we say it sits inthere without frequent use.
Now, what we mean by that is that doesn'tmean that they never use any of it.
What they mean is thatthey use it really slowly.
And this can happen on farms a lot, manyfarms, especially the smaller operations,
(08:57):
not uncommon to find a fuel storage tank.
With fuel that's, you know,five, five years old, right?
Because they just haven't had the need touse all of it, but they still definitely
have the need to keep it around.
Then you have high turn fuel.
That's fuel that goes into a storagetank and is intended to be moved
(09:18):
out pretty quickly, not talkingabout multiple months, we're talking
about days or a handful of weeks.
And again, already discussed thatthis is the model that retail fuel
distributors, gas stations and truck stopsused, so low turn and high turn fuel.
Most professionals understandthat low turn fuel, remember the
(09:43):
fuel that's sitting in there fora long time, long period of time.
They understand that low turn fuelthat sits in storage for longer
periods of time is inherently.
More at risk for developingmicrobial problems.
Okay?
We're not gonna dispute that, butthere's a concurrent belief from the same
people that on the opposite side, thequick turn fuel is, shall we say, too
(10:09):
temporary to develop microbial problems.
And that belief is where themistake happens, the logic behind,
it's understandable though, right?
Microbial contamination inherentlytends to develop over a period of time.
The more time you have, the greater chancethat you give for microbes to grow and
(10:31):
develop a contamination situation, butthe logic goes quicker, and fuel doesn't
stay in the tank very long, so microbesdon't have the time needed to grow.
Okay.
If you stop there, sounds reasonable.
Right?
The problem though, and this is wherewe start to kind of chip away at this
mistaken logic, the problem is thatfuel turnover by itself does not
(10:57):
eliminate microbial contamination.
Because the issue isn't just thefuel, the issue's also with the
tank and the storage system itself.
And when we say that, we say quickturn fuel is not immune from developing
microbial contamination problems because.
(11:19):
These kind of problems, thechance of these kind of problems
developing does not solely rest onhow long the fuel's in the tank.
It doesn't matter.
The chance of problems developing does notrest simply on the fact that the fuel gets
used up and keeps getting changed quickly.
It matters more.
(11:41):
That the tank itself does not change.
So we're gonna unpack that,principle a little bit.
So think about this microbialcontamination in a fuel storage tank.
Where is that microbialcontamination, right?
Microbial contaminationis not just in the fuel.
Microbes don't just stay in the fueland float around and live just there.
(12:07):
Microbes in a storage tank actuallylike to establish themselves in
multiple different kinds of places, andone of those places is all the solid
surfaces that they have access to.
So think about a fish tank, right?
If you have an aquarium or ifyou've ever had to manage an
aquarium, you know that algae.
(12:29):
Which is a type of microbe algae willgrow on the glass and the filter and
the surfaces in that inside the tank.
And what you'll find is that even ifyou change that water every single day,
algae is still gonna grow on that glass,on that filter, on those surfaces.
The same type of thing happensin fetal storage tanks, except
(12:50):
we're not talking about algae.
'cause algae doesn't grow inside a storagetank 'cause algae needs the light to grow.
But that's another show.
Instead, we're talking about bacteria.
Mold fungi, same thing happenswith them in fuel storage tanks.
They will grow and live in two mainplaces in stored fuel situations.
(13:10):
First one is the fuel water interface.
Remember that water's heavier thanfuel, so water built up on the bottom.
Fuel, the lighter fractions is on top,and microbes do like to grow at the
place where the two meet because theyhave special close access to all the
things that they need to grow and thrive.
(13:33):
They've got moisture from thewater on the bottom and they
have, elemental nutrients from thehydrocarbons on top, and that's fine.
But they don't just grow atthe fuel water interface.
They also grow.
On the tank surfaces and the piping.
And the reason they're able to do this isbecause microbes will form this biological
(13:53):
material called a biofilm or biomass.
They will form this as part oftheir metabolic processes, and this
will start to build up and formin layers on these solid surfaces.
And then what the microbes will dois they will actually live inside
the layers of this biological.
(14:14):
Matrix.
So in a fuel storage tank thathas a microbial contamination
problem, you're not just gonna findit at the fuel water interface.
You're also gonna find it in allof that biomass and biofilm that is
stuck to the solid surfaces insideof that fuel distribution system.
And the important part that getsmissed in a lot of this is that.
(14:38):
The fuel turnover that youhave, fuel turnover itself does
not remove microbial growth.
Even if you were to get a new fuel drop,fresh fuel delivered every day or twice
a week, whenever you have it, even ifyou have fresh fuel delivered frequently.
(14:59):
The microbial contamination that hasbuilt up inside of that tank over
a long period of time, it does notdisappear when the new fuel comes in.
Instead, what happens is thatevery time you get new fuel
added, you get a new fuel drop.
What happens is that.
Kicks up, stirs up the microbialcontamination, it creates turbulence.
(15:24):
That turbulence will kick upwhat's at the bottom of the tank.
It will disturb the biomass formationsthat are on the solid surfaces.
And so essentially what used to becontained and kind of just hanging
around, not wanting to be disturbed,what happens is that essentially gets.
(15:45):
Kicked up and thrownthroughout the entire tank.
And so what you get is you get awhole bunch of microbes that now
find themselves with the, shallwe say, the enhanced ability.
To go out and go to otherplaces of the tank and establish
additional microbial colonies.
And so in this sense, while the fuelitself might only be in the tank for a
(16:08):
short period of time, that that microbialcontamination is still there and is going
to get worse with each new fuel dropuntil or unless you do something about it.
What are the consequences of ignoringthis microbial contamination?
Okay.
If you have been a listener to thisshow, and hopefully all of you have
(16:29):
listened to all the episodes before,for those of you who have, we thank you.
But if you have listened to any ofthe episodes before that we've done on
microbial contamination problems, you'llrecognize some of these consequences.
First consequence from apractical standpoint is clogged
fuel filters, microbial biomass.
Well can get caught in those filters.
(16:51):
It'll block fuel flow and is amajor reason why you can get no
start and no run situations thatdevelop in emergency backup systems.
Right?
So clogged fuel filters, number one.
Number two, tank corrosion,corrosion, damage to the tank,
walls, and the components.
And this happens because of twomain, vectors, if you will.
(17:15):
First of all.
Many species of microbes, especiallyones like acid producing microbes and
sulfate reducing microbes, they willas the byproducts of their metabolism,
they'll produce acids, the release acids,and those acids will then over time
start to eat away at metal components.
(17:36):
So.
That's one part of the story, thisslow, steady, corrosion damage from the
acids that have been produced by themicrobes, and those microbes don't go
away after whether the fuel itself ismoved out of the tank, quickly or slowly.
They're gonna do whatthey're gonna do regardless.
But additional trouble comes in whenyou have these layers of biomass.
(18:00):
And the reason is that these biomasslayers are complex ecosystems of microbes.
They are not just solid surfaces of stuff.
They're actually, layers that havelots of different pockets and stuff
for stuff to build up and develop.
And so to make a long storyshort, what you'll get.
(18:20):
You'll, if you have layers ofbiomass on a tank surface, you can
get a number of different kinds ofcorrosion that can happen simply
from that biomass being there.
So if you find evidence thatyou have biomass in your system,
you need to get rid of it.
Now, to be fair.
(18:42):
These things that we're talkingabout, these development of
corrosion damage, it's not somethingthat happens overnight, right?
But it is something where if youdon't do something about it and
you allow it to go on unchecked, itwill eventually weaken a and damage
a tank or pipe system over time.
(19:04):
And if you run, like anythingthat resembles a critical.
Fuel system, like an emergency backupsystem, something that absolutely has
to work at any time when you need it.
This is not a situation thatyou can afford to just let go.
You need to do something about it.
So take away here broadly is theseissues we're talking about can manifest
(19:29):
themselves just as much in quick turnfuel situations, as with slow turn.
Or long-term storage situations.
And so that leads us to ask thequestion, how do you stop microbial
contamination before it becomes aproblem, especially in quick turn tanks?
Well, you might assume thatquick turn tanks, right?
(19:52):
You know the ones that see theseregular Phillips and drawdowns,
again, you might assume that theydon't have time to grow microbial
contamination, but as we've already seen.
That's simply not true.
Micro microbial contamination doesn't needthe same fuel sitting in there undisturbed
for months, doesn't need that to develop.
All it needs is water and opportunity,and that they're going to get that both
(20:16):
in a quick turn and a slow turn situation.
So here are a few quick points on how to,stay ahead of these microbial problems.
Step number one is.
You wanna do regular fuel sampling,you do not want to wait for a shutdown
to tell you that something's wrong.
What you should be doing issampling your stored fuel on some
(20:38):
kind of regular interval basis.
And when we say sampling,we're not just talking about.
Taking a drain sample from a fillport, that's not necessarily gonna
tell you or give you a good picture ofwhat's actually happening in your tank.
Instead, you need to know what'shappening at the bottom of your
fuel tank, where the water andthe microbes tend to be collected.
(21:03):
In order to do that, what you need isyou need what they call a fuel sampler,
or you may have seen it referredto as a bacon bomb fuel sampler.
So it's a long metal cylinder.
You can lower it down to whatever heightin the tank you need, and then you can
draw a sample from whatever's around it.
(21:23):
At that depth, we typically recommendthat you take a fuel sample from
near the bottom of the tank, neverfrom the dead bottom of the tank, but
typically about three to six inches.
That typically is the areawhere if you can get a sample
of what's around the sampler.
At that height, that's going to giveyou the most representative picture
(21:46):
of what your fuel actually looks like.
And so what are you gonna be looking for?
What are you gonna be looking?
First of all, you're gonnabe looking at its appearance.
You're gonna be looking to see if itlooks abnormal, has it changed color?
You know, you know what?
Fresh clear.
And by diesel fuel, whetherit's dyed or undyed, you know
what that should look like.
(22:06):
Does it look like whatit should look like?
Does it have a lot of water in it?
Does.
Is there a lot of sediment, a lotof funky biomass stuff that, that,
typically isn't supposed to be there.
If you find evidence of that injust a sample that you're taking
with a bacon bomb, you can be prettysure that the reality in your tank
(22:27):
is, it's a lot worse than that.
And so you now knowsomething you didn't before.
That you need to take action,and that's really important.
Okay.
Step two is you, not only do youwanna do fuel sampling pretty,
twice a year at a minimum you wannado biannual microbial testing.
(22:49):
Because even if your fuel samplelooks fine, it looks clear and bright.
It doesn't mean that you don'thave microbial contamination
growing in your system.
So the way that you figure out ifyou have microbial contamination
developing is you do a microbe test.
Now, there are different waysthat you can do a micro test,
(23:10):
different testing methodologies.
The best one to use is whatthey call a TP by filtration.
That's a test that measures microbialpresence pretty directly, and it measures
it pretty quickly, which means if youdo one of those, you can get a pretty
clear view on if you have problematiclevels of microbes in your tank.
(23:32):
Or not, and it also means that you canthen decide if you need to take action.
So that's step two,biannual microbial testing.
The third one is what you do if youfind a problem or if you have reason
to suspect that you have a problem.
And that is you need to water removal.
And you need to do biocide treatment.
(23:54):
Now, this is where a lot of tanks,especially quick turn tanks, kind of fall
short in their housekeeping protocols.
Microbes do not need a lot of waterin order to gain a foothold and
develop a contamination situation.
So if you have any detectable water inthere, you want to get it out and you
(24:15):
wanna do that, as soon as you find it.
How do you do that?
Well, depending on where it is in thetank, you can either drain it from the
sump or you can use a water scavengingchemical that will essentially mop up
the water that you can't find, that youcan't get to, but that you have pretty
reasonable certainty is in your tank,especially if you have a system that's
(24:37):
got like baffles and things like that.
Highly, highly likely that you'vegot pockets of water in there.
And then.
If you did step two, right?
And you did that microbial testingand that testing confirmed that you do
indeed have microbial contamination,
what do you do then?
Right?
(24:58):
Well, what you need to do isyou need to apply a biocide
chemical treatment into your fuel.
Now, this is a very, this isvery important to understand.
There are chemicals out therethat will talk, they're typically
multifunction treatment chemistries,and they'll claim to do a whole
bunch of different things, right?
(25:19):
And it's very, very common for themto list off two particular things,
controls water, and removes oreliminates microbial contamination.
Now.
The reality is that simply removing thewater out of a system will not eliminate
(25:41):
microbial contamination if microbialcontamination is established in your tank.
It will not go away simplyif you remove the water.
That is a myth that has had beenheld over from multiple decades
in the past, and with today'sfuels, that simply is not true.
(26:01):
But yet a lot of people still believethat is a correct description of the
reality when it's not the only way.
For you to get rid of a microbialcontamination problem is to use a biocide.
And a biocide is a class of chemistriesthat have been designed to kill biological
(26:23):
organisms, which is what microbes are.
They're designed to kill microbes.
Specifically, they're designedto kill the broad spectrum of the
kinds of microbes that tend tobe found in fuel storage systems.
The thing that's really importantto recognize the biocides is.
They're formulated to killbiological things, and as such,
(26:44):
they are very highly regulated and.
Every legitimate buyer side that'sused in the industry, like in upstream
oil and gas situations, for example,which use a lot of buyer sides.
Those are all EPA registered because thelaw says it has to be EPA registered.
So make sure that you're using a buyerside that is EPA, registered for use
(27:07):
in fuel of which there's, five orsix good chemistries to choose from.
And then after you've applied itproperly and followed the directions.
Give it time to work, and then it'sreally a good idea to follow up with
another round of microbial testing.
So pull another sample and do amicrobe test to verify that your
(27:30):
microbial levels have been reducedfrom problematic to negligible.
A good buyer's side will do thatand will do that relatively quickly.
So that's the third thing thatyou want to do in this situation.
So hopefully now you realize that ifyou manage quick turn fuels, you still
have to worry about microbe problems.
(27:51):
But there are good.
Proven industry practices that you canuse to eliminate that problem so that it
doesn't become a bigger and bigger one foryou, or God forbid for your customers.
And so with that, that's gonna do thingsthat's gonna wrap things up for this
episode of the Fuel Pulse Show podcast.
(28:12):
Thank you again for joining us.
As always, we will put links to thingsthat we talked about in the show notes.
And if you have not already,feel free to subscribe.
Feel free to tell your friends,subscribe at your podcast platform
or choice, whether that's Stitcher,Amazon Podcast, Google Podcasts
(28:33):
whichever one you like to use.
And if you also are so inclined, feelfree to leave us a good review because
that really does help us a lot as well.
So until next time, I'myour host, Eric Bjornstad.
Thank you again for joining us andwe'll talk to you next time on the next
episode of the Fuel 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 Bjornstad, andtoday I'll be your guide through
the ever-changing World of Fuel.
So here at the Fuel Pulse Showpodcast, we talk about issues
surrounding all the different kindsof fuel that power American business.
(00:21):
And American life and all thethings that we want and need to do.
And so we also talk about all thedifferent things that use that fuel.
Again, both at work and but also at home.
That means a fuel pulse show podcastis really intended for everybody.
And so with that in mind, whatare we going to talk about?
On today's episode, many of the folksin our audience have something to do with
(00:44):
stored fuel in their professional lives.
Lots of different kinds ofbusinesses, lots of industries,
they keep stored fuel around insome capacity because they need it.
Police stations, fire stations, utilities,telecoms, and data centers are big ones.
Hospitals and healthcarefacilities, obviously fleets.
And then also don't forgetagriculture and farming.
(01:08):
These areas are all big ones when itcomes to the role that stored fuel plays
in helping them do what they need to do.
And we are coming out of the winter,heading into the spring where the
temperatures are warming up, andso the focus for these operations
managers that manage these fuels, thatfocus is really shifting away from.
(01:33):
, how do I keep cold weather jellingproblems from happening in my fuel to now?
How do I keep.
Other things from happening in my fuelso that I don't have problems in the
spring and in the hot summer months.
Right?
So all these users, they'rethinking about that kind of thing.
They all keep stored fuel around insome fashion because they need it.
(01:56):
Many of them keep it aroundas, say, emergency backup fuel,
depending on the scenario.
That fuel, that stored fuel that theyhave that can sit in storage for, could
be relatively long periods of time.
Could be a year, couldbe two years, maybe more.
(02:17):
Sitting in there waiting to be used.
On the other end of the spectrumthough, you've also got people, and
this is especially true when you'retalking about private fleets and also
what we call retail fuel distributors.
These folks are on the oppositeother end of the spectrum.
They store fuel, but they don't keepit around for years or even months.
(02:41):
Their fuel tends to move.
In and out of the storage tank almost asfast as they can get in in there, right?
Think about truck and busfleets that fill up every day,
, the bus goes around town, does itsroute, comes in at the end of the day,
fills up from a central fuel storagetank at that installation so that
it's ready to go for the next day.
(03:02):
And that kind of place, that placegoes through fuel really quickly.
The fuel that they havein that fuel storage tank.
Is not gonna be sittingin there for very long.
It's gonna be used up pretty quickly.
It's not uncommon for a gas stationto get at least a couple of fuel
drops a week and you can get a truckstop that happens to be pretty busy.
(03:24):
They'll get a fuel delivery a day,maybe multiple fuel drops a day
when they're really busy, right?
Those users are consideredquick turn or high turn.
Fuel users because the fuel doesn'tsit in the tank for very long.
It gets used up, pretty quickly.
So today what we wanna do iswe wanna tackle one of the
(03:44):
biggest myths in fuel storage.
And it's a myth that has to dowith differences between this low
turn fuel and this high turn fuel.
We're talking about the idea thatmicrobial problems are not a concern.
In high turn fuel storage tanks.
(04:05):
It's well known that when you have.
Stored fuel, and it's sits in a tank,a storage tank for months or years.
Long term stored fuel.
It's well known that that kind of fuelhas a relatively high risk of eventually
developing microbial contamination.
But can you say the same thing aboutquick turn fuel is the same thing
(04:27):
true about fuel that moves in, goesinto the tank, and then gets used up.
Going out of the tank in a matter notof months or years, but days or weeks.
Is it also true about that kind of fuel?
And the thing is, many fuel professionalsassume that quick turn fuel just
doesn't sit in the tank long enoughto develop microbial problems.
(04:50):
After all the fuel's always beingused and being replaced by new fuel,
on a relatively constant basis.
How could microbes havetime to grow in that fuel?
Well, that assumption that you don'tneed to worry about microbial problems
in that kind of fuel, that assumption isa lot more wrong than you might think.
(05:11):
So today we're gonna explain whyquick turn fuel is not immune
to microbial contamination.
In some cases, we're gonna see how quickturn fuel can actually cause situations
which accelerate microbial spread.
So.
Let's dive into this now, before we getinto the nuances of quick turn versus slow
(05:35):
turn fuel, let's talk about who actuallyuses these kinds of stored fuel and
why maintaining that or protecting thatfuel's quality is so important to them.
We already briefly went through thesewhen we were rattling out the list
of people that used stored fuel, sohospitals and healthcare facilities.
Virtually all of these will haveemergency backup generator systems.
(05:58):
They're required to have those, and thosesystems need clean, viable, inspect diesel
fuel so that they can be sure to functionif something happens like a power failure.
Police and fire stations, theseall will typically have onsite fuel
reserves so that they can keep theiroperations and their operation centers,
(06:20):
their vehicles operational again.
If an emergency happens, data centersand telecom, these rely on backup fuel,
very important for their backup fuel tobe there to prevent business downtime
and to keep their servers running.
Data centers is one of those markets thatis just growing and growing and growing.
(06:41):
Number of data centers across thecountries is, I think, projected
to, increase by four times.
In just within the next five years.
And that's because of thegrowth of things like ai.
And so four times more data centersis gonna mean four times more backup
fuel and four times more potentialdeveloping microbial problems that
(07:04):
need to be managed and controlled.
And then of course, since we mentionedtelecom, think about all the cell towers
that you see all across the fruited plane.
Every single one of those cell towers has.
A backup generator that has a fuelstorage tank that has fuel in it
that needs to be maintained becauseagain, they can't afford to go down.
(07:29):
They have to ensure that they're online.
And so there's a lot of stored fuelfor those kind of operations trucks
and bus fleets already mentioned.
Those already mentionedfact, many large fleets.
And we'll maintain these large on sitebulk fuel storage tanks so that they can
have easy refueling of those vehicles.
(07:51):
And then another one, we also mentionedgas stations and retail fuel distributors.
These are the facilities thatare probably the prototypical
examples of quick turn fuel.
They will cycle through highvolumes of fuel constantly.
They have to, that's theirbusiness model, right?
(08:11):
So again, not uncommon for them to getone or more fuel drops a day, right?
Depending on how quickly the fuelgets used up, it's either gonna be
low turn fuel or high turn fuel.
Low turn fuel more specifically,is considered to be fuel
that sits in storage for.
(08:33):
Multiple months.
And then of course that can goall the way up to years, but it's
at least multiple months of time.
And we say it sits inthere without frequent use.
Now, what we mean by that is that doesn'tmean that they never use any of it.
What they mean is thatthey use it really slowly.
And this can happen on farms a lot, manyfarms, especially the smaller operations,
(08:57):
not uncommon to find a fuel storage tank.
With fuel that's, you know,five, five years old, right?
Because they just haven't had the need touse all of it, but they still definitely
have the need to keep it around.
Then you have high turn fuel.
That's fuel that goes into a storagetank and is intended to be moved
(09:18):
out pretty quickly, not talkingabout multiple months, we're talking
about days or a handful of weeks.
And again, already discussed thatthis is the model that retail fuel
distributors, gas stations and truck stopsused, so low turn and high turn fuel.
Most professionals understandthat low turn fuel, remember the
(09:43):
fuel that's sitting in there fora long time, long period of time.
They understand that low turn fuelthat sits in storage for longer
periods of time is inherently.
More at risk for developingmicrobial problems.
Okay?
We're not gonna dispute that, butthere's a concurrent belief from the same
people that on the opposite side, thequick turn fuel is, shall we say, too
(10:09):
temporary to develop microbial problems.
And that belief is where themistake happens, the logic behind,
it's understandable though, right?
Microbial contamination inherentlytends to develop over a period of time.
The more time you have, the greater chancethat you give for microbes to grow and
(10:31):
develop a contamination situation, butthe logic goes quicker, and fuel doesn't
stay in the tank very long, so microbesdon't have the time needed to grow.
Okay.
If you stop there, sounds reasonable.
Right?
The problem though, and this is wherewe start to kind of chip away at this
mistaken logic, the problem is thatfuel turnover by itself does not
(10:57):
eliminate microbial contamination.
Because the issue isn't just thefuel, the issue's also with the
tank and the storage system itself.
And when we say that, we say quickturn fuel is not immune from developing
microbial contamination problems because.
(11:19):
These kind of problems, thechance of these kind of problems
developing does not solely rest onhow long the fuel's in the tank.
It doesn't matter.
The chance of problems developing does notrest simply on the fact that the fuel gets
used up and keeps getting changed quickly.
It matters more.
(11:41):
That the tank itself does not change.
So we're gonna unpack that,principle a little bit.
So think about this microbialcontamination in a fuel storage tank.
Where is that microbialcontamination, right?
Microbial contaminationis not just in the fuel.
Microbes don't just stay in the fueland float around and live just there.
(12:07):
Microbes in a storage tank actuallylike to establish themselves in
multiple different kinds of places, andone of those places is all the solid
surfaces that they have access to.
So think about a fish tank, right?
If you have an aquarium or ifyou've ever had to manage an
aquarium, you know that algae.
(12:29):
Which is a type of microbe algae willgrow on the glass and the filter and
the surfaces in that inside the tank.
And what you'll find is that even ifyou change that water every single day,
algae is still gonna grow on that glass,on that filter, on those surfaces.
The same type of thing happensin fetal storage tanks, except
(12:50):
we're not talking about algae.
'cause algae doesn't grow inside a storagetank 'cause algae needs the light to grow.
But that's another show.
Instead, we're talking about bacteria.
Mold fungi, same thing happenswith them in fuel storage tanks.
They will grow and live in two mainplaces in stored fuel situations.
(13:10):
First one is the fuel water interface.
Remember that water's heavier thanfuel, so water built up on the bottom.
Fuel, the lighter fractions is on top,and microbes do like to grow at the
place where the two meet because theyhave special close access to all the
things that they need to grow and thrive.
(13:33):
They've got moisture from thewater on the bottom and they
have, elemental nutrients from thehydrocarbons on top, and that's fine.
But they don't just grow atthe fuel water interface.
They also grow.
On the tank surfaces and the piping.
And the reason they're able to do this isbecause microbes will form this biological
(13:53):
material called a biofilm or biomass.
They will form this as part oftheir metabolic processes, and this
will start to build up and formin layers on these solid surfaces.
And then what the microbes will dois they will actually live inside
the layers of this biological.
(14:14):
Matrix.
So in a fuel storage tank thathas a microbial contamination
problem, you're not just gonna findit at the fuel water interface.
You're also gonna find it in allof that biomass and biofilm that is
stuck to the solid surfaces insideof that fuel distribution system.
And the important part that getsmissed in a lot of this is that.
(14:38):
The fuel turnover that youhave, fuel turnover itself does
not remove microbial growth.
Even if you were to get a new fuel drop,fresh fuel delivered every day or twice
a week, whenever you have it, even ifyou have fresh fuel delivered frequently.
(14:59):
The microbial contamination that hasbuilt up inside of that tank over
a long period of time, it does notdisappear when the new fuel comes in.
Instead, what happens is thatevery time you get new fuel
added, you get a new fuel drop.
What happens is that.
Kicks up, stirs up the microbialcontamination, it creates turbulence.
(15:24):
That turbulence will kick upwhat's at the bottom of the tank.
It will disturb the biomass formationsthat are on the solid surfaces.
And so essentially what used to becontained and kind of just hanging
around, not wanting to be disturbed,what happens is that essentially gets.
(15:45):
Kicked up and thrownthroughout the entire tank.
And so what you get is you get awhole bunch of microbes that now
find themselves with the, shallwe say, the enhanced ability.
To go out and go to otherplaces of the tank and establish
additional microbial colonies.
And so in this sense, while the fuelitself might only be in the tank for a
(16:08):
short period of time, that that microbialcontamination is still there and is going
to get worse with each new fuel dropuntil or unless you do something about it.
What are the consequences of ignoringthis microbial contamination?
Okay.
If you have been a listener to thisshow, and hopefully all of you have
(16:29):
listened to all the episodes before,for those of you who have, we thank you.
But if you have listened to any ofthe episodes before that we've done on
microbial contamination problems, you'llrecognize some of these consequences.
First consequence from apractical standpoint is clogged
fuel filters, microbial biomass.
Well can get caught in those filters.
(16:51):
It'll block fuel flow and is amajor reason why you can get no
start and no run situations thatdevelop in emergency backup systems.
Right?
So clogged fuel filters, number one.
Number two, tank corrosion,corrosion, damage to the tank,
walls, and the components.
And this happens because of twomain, vectors, if you will.
(17:15):
First of all.
Many species of microbes, especiallyones like acid producing microbes and
sulfate reducing microbes, they willas the byproducts of their metabolism,
they'll produce acids, the release acids,and those acids will then over time
start to eat away at metal components.
(17:36):
So.
That's one part of the story, thisslow, steady, corrosion damage from the
acids that have been produced by themicrobes, and those microbes don't go
away after whether the fuel itself ismoved out of the tank, quickly or slowly.
They're gonna do whatthey're gonna do regardless.
But additional trouble comes in whenyou have these layers of biomass.
(18:00):
And the reason is that these biomasslayers are complex ecosystems of microbes.
They are not just solid surfaces of stuff.
They're actually, layers that havelots of different pockets and stuff
for stuff to build up and develop.
And so to make a long storyshort, what you'll get.
(18:20):
You'll, if you have layers ofbiomass on a tank surface, you can
get a number of different kinds ofcorrosion that can happen simply
from that biomass being there.
So if you find evidence thatyou have biomass in your system,
you need to get rid of it.
Now, to be fair.
(18:42):
These things that we're talkingabout, these development of
corrosion damage, it's not somethingthat happens overnight, right?
But it is something where if youdon't do something about it and
you allow it to go on unchecked, itwill eventually weaken a and damage
a tank or pipe system over time.
(19:04):
And if you run, like anythingthat resembles a critical.
Fuel system, like an emergency backupsystem, something that absolutely has
to work at any time when you need it.
This is not a situation thatyou can afford to just let go.
You need to do something about it.
So take away here broadly is theseissues we're talking about can manifest
(19:29):
themselves just as much in quick turnfuel situations, as with slow turn.
Or long-term storage situations.
And so that leads us to ask thequestion, how do you stop microbial
contamination before it becomes aproblem, especially in quick turn tanks?
Well, you might assume thatquick turn tanks, right?
(19:52):
You know the ones that see theseregular Phillips and drawdowns,
again, you might assume that theydon't have time to grow microbial
contamination, but as we've already seen.
That's simply not true.
Micro microbial contamination doesn't needthe same fuel sitting in there undisturbed
for months, doesn't need that to develop.
All it needs is water and opportunity,and that they're going to get that both
(20:16):
in a quick turn and a slow turn situation.
So here are a few quick points on how to,stay ahead of these microbial problems.
Step number one is.
You wanna do regular fuel sampling,you do not want to wait for a shutdown
to tell you that something's wrong.
What you should be doing issampling your stored fuel on some
(20:38):
kind of regular interval basis.
And when we say sampling,we're not just talking about.
Taking a drain sample from a fillport, that's not necessarily gonna
tell you or give you a good picture ofwhat's actually happening in your tank.
Instead, you need to know what'shappening at the bottom of your
fuel tank, where the water andthe microbes tend to be collected.
(21:03):
In order to do that, what you need isyou need what they call a fuel sampler,
or you may have seen it referredto as a bacon bomb fuel sampler.
So it's a long metal cylinder.
You can lower it down to whatever heightin the tank you need, and then you can
draw a sample from whatever's around it.
(21:23):
At that depth, we typically recommendthat you take a fuel sample from
near the bottom of the tank, neverfrom the dead bottom of the tank, but
typically about three to six inches.
That typically is the areawhere if you can get a sample
of what's around the sampler.
At that height, that's going to giveyou the most representative picture
(21:46):
of what your fuel actually looks like.
And so what are you gonna be looking for?
What are you gonna be looking?
First of all, you're gonnabe looking at its appearance.
You're gonna be looking to see if itlooks abnormal, has it changed color?
You know, you know what?
Fresh clear.
And by diesel fuel, whetherit's dyed or undyed, you know
what that should look like.
(22:06):
Does it look like whatit should look like?
Does it have a lot of water in it?
Does.
Is there a lot of sediment, a lotof funky biomass stuff that, that,
typically isn't supposed to be there.
If you find evidence of that injust a sample that you're taking
with a bacon bomb, you can be prettysure that the reality in your tank
(22:27):
is, it's a lot worse than that.
And so you now knowsomething you didn't before.
That you need to take action,and that's really important.
Okay.
Step two is you, not only do youwanna do fuel sampling pretty,
twice a year at a minimum you wannado biannual microbial testing.
(22:49):
Because even if your fuel samplelooks fine, it looks clear and bright.
It doesn't mean that you don'thave microbial contamination
growing in your system.
So the way that you figure out ifyou have microbial contamination
developing is you do a microbe test.
Now, there are different waysthat you can do a micro test,
(23:10):
different testing methodologies.
The best one to use is whatthey call a TP by filtration.
That's a test that measures microbialpresence pretty directly, and it measures
it pretty quickly, which means if youdo one of those, you can get a pretty
clear view on if you have problematiclevels of microbes in your tank.
(23:32):
Or not, and it also means that you canthen decide if you need to take action.
So that's step two,biannual microbial testing.
The third one is what you do if youfind a problem or if you have reason
to suspect that you have a problem.
And that is you need to water removal.
And you need to do biocide treatment.
(23:54):
Now, this is where a lot of tanks,especially quick turn tanks, kind of fall
short in their housekeeping protocols.
Microbes do not need a lot of waterin order to gain a foothold and
develop a contamination situation.
So if you have any detectable water inthere, you want to get it out and you
(24:15):
wanna do that, as soon as you find it.
How do you do that?
Well, depending on where it is in thetank, you can either drain it from the
sump or you can use a water scavengingchemical that will essentially mop up
the water that you can't find, that youcan't get to, but that you have pretty
reasonable certainty is in your tank,especially if you have a system that's
(24:37):
got like baffles and things like that.
Highly, highly likely that you'vegot pockets of water in there.
And then.
If you did step two, right?
And you did that microbial testingand that testing confirmed that you do
indeed have microbial contamination,
what do you do then?
Right?
(24:58):
Well, what you need to do isyou need to apply a biocide
chemical treatment into your fuel.
Now, this is a very, this isvery important to understand.
There are chemicals out therethat will talk, they're typically
multifunction treatment chemistries,and they'll claim to do a whole
bunch of different things, right?
(25:19):
And it's very, very common for themto list off two particular things,
controls water, and removes oreliminates microbial contamination.
Now.
The reality is that simply removing thewater out of a system will not eliminate
(25:41):
microbial contamination if microbialcontamination is established in your tank.
It will not go away simplyif you remove the water.
That is a myth that has had beenheld over from multiple decades
in the past, and with today'sfuels, that simply is not true.
(26:01):
But yet a lot of people still believethat is a correct description of the
reality when it's not the only way.
For you to get rid of a microbialcontamination problem is to use a biocide.
And a biocide is a class of chemistriesthat have been designed to kill biological
(26:23):
organisms, which is what microbes are.
They're designed to kill microbes.
Specifically, they're designedto kill the broad spectrum of the
kinds of microbes that tend tobe found in fuel storage systems.
The thing that's really importantto recognize the biocides is.
They're formulated to killbiological things, and as such,
(26:44):
they are very highly regulated and.
Every legitimate buyer side that'sused in the industry, like in upstream
oil and gas situations, for example,which use a lot of buyer sides.
Those are all EPA registered because thelaw says it has to be EPA registered.
So make sure that you're using a buyerside that is EPA, registered for use
(27:07):
in fuel of which there's, five orsix good chemistries to choose from.
And then after you've applied itproperly and followed the directions.
Give it time to work, and then it'sreally a good idea to follow up with
another round of microbial testing.
So pull another sample and do amicrobe test to verify that your
(27:30):
microbial levels have been reducedfrom problematic to negligible.
A good buyer's side will do thatand will do that relatively quickly.
So that's the third thing thatyou want to do in this situation.
So hopefully now you realize that ifyou manage quick turn fuels, you still
have to worry about microbe problems.
(27:51):
But there are good.
Proven industry practices that you canuse to eliminate that problem so that it
doesn't become a bigger and bigger one foryou, or God forbid for your customers.
And so with that, that's gonna do thingsthat's gonna wrap things up for this
episode of the Fuel Pulse Show podcast.
(28:12):
Thank you again for joining us.
As always, we will put links to thingsthat we talked about in the show notes.
And if you have not already,feel free to subscribe.
Feel free to tell your friends,subscribe at your podcast platform
or choice, whether that's Stitcher,Amazon Podcast, Google Podcasts
(28:33):
whichever one you like to use.
And if you also are so inclined, feelfree to leave us a good review because
that really does help us a lot as well.
So until next time, I'myour host, Eric Bjornstad.
Thank you again for joining us andwe'll talk to you next time on the next
episode of the Fuel Pulse Show podcast.
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