Diesel fuel retirement
Diesel fuel older than 2 years should be disposed of for many reasons I
cannot recall. There is info aplenty on the Web. Even respected additives such
those made by Stanadyne, the injection-pump maker, have a shelf-life. Speaking
of
which, I believe Stanadyne's additives are the only ones approved by the
engine mfrs. Why would anyone use anything else?
Agreed that adding a bit of oil to today's Diesel fuel is a good idea. But
used and filtered lubeoil is just as effective and much more economical than
3-in-1 and the like. Jeepers!
No connection.
Regards,
John
"Seahorse"
Bob Austin wrote:
. Then I didn't use a boat for 2
years--tanks were full, had the appropiate amount of Biobar. The new owner
didn't use the polishing system, and ended up being towed in after hitting
rough seas and having the sediment stired up (the tanks were relitatively new
and had been in almost constant used until the boat was stored for 2 years).
(SNIP) Diesel fuel older than 2 years should be disposed of for many reasons
I cannot recall.
I'll be happy to take any "old" diesel fuel off anyone's hands as a public
service. Just hail me when you see Curmudgeon on the transom and I'll pull
alongside to do the transfer.
I found a tank of diesel fuel stored since 1956 about 5 years ago and put it
in my backhoe. It ran like a champ. IMHO, there's nothing a few rolls of
toilet paper or paper towels can't fix with old diesel fuel.
Regards....
Phil Rosch
Old Harbor Consulting
M/V Curmudgeon MT-44TC
Currently "aground" in Redondo Beach, CA
John wrote:
Diesel fuel older than 2 years should be disposed of for many reasons I
cannot recall. There is info aplenty on the Web.
REPLY
John, I do not know if you were a subscriber back when ( 1998) Paul
Kruze was active. However part of his job with NASA was to maintain
large fuel storage facilities around the world. He said that many of
these fuel depots had tanks which had fuel stored in them for ten years
or more without showing any signs of deterioration.
The military also maintains huge fuel dumps as part of their strategic
fuel reserve.
Just because it's posted on the web doesn't always make it true.
I can think of several reasons why someone would have a vested interest
in disseminating the idea that fuel "rots" or somehow has a limited
storage life.
Unfortunately, mother nature never got the word. She has been storing
crude oil underground for many thousands if not millions of years.
<grin>
Cheers
Arild
In Paul's business, I believe he used Gulf Coast depth filters. There was
also a fellow who was a fleet manager for Shell who also used them. There
are products to boost the cetane rating of diesel, but after Arild's
comments, I'm not sure that they are necessary.
Alex is our lubricants man. Alex do you have anything to contribute on
diesel's aging? BTW, our US national repository (a salt mine) holds crude
oil and not refined product such as that stored in military fuel dumps. At
least in Alaska, the Air Force (at Elmendorf?) uses Gulf Coast depth filters
as well. No relation and haven't installed my Jr. yet.
Ron Rogers
----- Original Message -----
From: "Arild Jensen" elnav@uniserve.com
| John wrote:
| Diesel fuel older than 2 years should be disposed of for many reasons I
| cannot recall. There is info aplenty on the Web.
|
|
| REPLY
| John, I do not know if you were a subscriber back when ( 1998) Paul
| Kruze was active. However part of his job with NASA was to maintain
| large fuel storage facilities around the world. He said that many of
| these fuel depots had tanks which had fuel stored in them for ten years
| or more without showing any signs of deterioration.
| The military also maintains huge fuel dumps as part of their strategic
| fuel reserve.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Rogers" rcrogers6@kennett.net
Alex do you have anything to contribute on diesel's aging?
Hi Ho Fueloids,
I've been watching these recent fuel threads with a certain amount of
amusement and an equal amount of frustration. Over the years I've
posted thousands of words on this subject, based on what I believe is
a pretty complete understanding of petroleum products and the industry
that produces and distributes them. I've always tried to give the
pertinent facts and to impart some of the background information about
how those facts came to be. I'm not minded to duplicate that effort in
the face of the many incomplete recommendations or anecdotes that have
been posted recently.
Having said that, here are a few random thoughts about fuel
management:
-
I don't have exact statistics but this should be pretty close - 90%
of the diesel fuel produced in the U.S. is consumed within 30 days of
leaving the refinery and 99% is used within 6 months. For that reason,
there is no particular reason for refiners to worry about shelf life.
Additionally, there is a convincing amount of anecdotal evidence that
today's diesel is not as stable as the fuel that was being produced 10
or 15 years ago. [That anecdotal evidence is consistent with
expectations based on the changes in molecular structure of diesel
fuel in recent times.] Because of that, using an aftermarket stability
improver is a reasonable investment for any diesel user that doesn't
'turn over his inventory' at least annually. -
The most common reasons for fuel related problems relate to having
water in the fuel. Further, the longer the fuel is contaminated with
water the worse (and more diverse) the problems become. Therefore, one
of the best investments a trawler owner can make (IMHO) is in the
installation and CONSISTENT use of an onboard fuel polishing system.
By using such a system on an ongoing basis the fuel can be kept, not
only clean, but DRY. If the fuel is constantly kept clean and dry
there should virtually never be the need for tank cleaning or too much
concern about rough conditions stirring up crud in the tanks. -
Second hand and/or truncated stories about fuel longevity may be
amusing but they are almost never useful. For such information to have
any validity it would have to include such things as the era in which
the fuel was produced, the storage conditions, the condition of the
fuel when originally stored, any preservative measures taken during
storage, what, if any, processing was done to the fuel when it was
taken out of storage, how was the fuel finally used, and how well the
fuel performed. -
Second hand and/or truncated stories about fuel additives aren't
even amusing. "I used such and such and it worked great!" - Who cares?
"So and so told me to use this" -So what? If you can't isolate a
particular fuel related problem then, by definition, you can't know
whether a given additive did any good. If you do have such data but
you can't be bothered to relate that information to the list then why
should anyone bother to pay attention? Caveat: Stability improvers
are an exception to this in that you would be trying to document a
negative occurrence. IOW Such additives are used in hopes that nothing
will happen as opposed to the possibility that something bad will
happen without their use. -
To get back to the question that started this particular thread,
Diesel fuel should almost never need to be discarded regardless of how
old it is BUT that fuel does need to be taken care of regardless of
how young it is.
Agedly yours,
Alex