Fuel, contaminated, odd...

[Jeepsinker]

I have a couple of 600 gallon fuel pods that I keep full of fuel here and I've never had any issues doing so until recently. Usually I can open the top and see all the way to the bottom. The fuel is normally clear as water with a slight amber tint, and you can see what water is on the bottom if any. A few days ago I checked the tanks to see if the water needed to be drained off and noticed a layer of whitish goo with clearly visible globules of water in it. I drained some off into a clear bottle and let it settle in the sun and it separated into three strata.

I found water on the bottom, a clean white substance that looks like milk, then fuel that is slightly opaque on top. This substance looks just like milk from the carton and is not transparent at all, furthermore, when run through my filter separator it does separate from fuel and fall to the bottom but it leaves goo on the filter element.
I can only guess that I have gotten a bacterial infection from somewhere and the milky sludge is the byproduct of the bacteria eating my fuel. I've never seen it look like this though, usually it is reddish or black.

I did go into town and buy a five gallon pail of CRC Bio Con and treated both tanks just to be safe, but was wondering if anyone else had run into this type of tank infection before?

 

[gimpyrobb]

Has your neighbor been by recently?

 

[Trailboss]

Have you added any fuel recently? If so, pumping it into the pod may have emulsified the water that was in the new fuel. The emulsion layer would be on top or beside the water and below the fuel.

 

[Jeepsinker]

I would say that was possible, but it wouldn't have turned the rest of the fuel cloudy in a couple of days. My neighbors have not been by at any time.

 

[Beyond Biodiesel]

Yes, I agree your fuel probably had bacteria growing on it. Bacteria needs water, and your fuel had some water in it. A small amount of gasoline added to your fuel pod will force the water out of solution with the diesel fuel, and kill the bacteria.

So, you could rinse the crud out of your fuel pod with gasoline, then leave it to settle in a bucket, then pour off the good fuel from the top, leaving the bacteria and water at the bottom.

 

[Jeepsinker]

Whatever it is, I can't seem to kill it. I've added two different kinds of biocides, and some gasoline and the fuel still looks cloudy. Really looks no different.

 

[dawico]

How does the fuel smell? I have a 100 gallon tank in my bed and the fuel looks similiar to what you are describing. There is about 50 gallons in it and it's smell reminds me of paint/ laquer thinner. It doesn't have a diesel smell at all to it. It is a yellowish foggy color, not at all green like the fuel I put into it.

Sorry, not trying to thread jack. I am just trying to decide what to do with this fuel. I was hoping you found a solution that I could try and maybe save this fuel. I was originally thinking I had gotten some bad fuel or it had been tampered with.

 

[Beyond Biodiesel]

If you know that the 50 gallons was originally diesel fuel, then you could pump it out into a barrel, then add gasoline to it at about 5-10%, do not agitate it, then leave it to settle for about a week or two, then pump the top 90% off into your fuel tank, and you should be good to go. The bottom 5-10% is likely to be crud and/or water.

 

[Keith_J]

Most #2 diesel has a few percent biodiesel added for lubrication issues, this can absorb more water than straight petroleum diesel since bd is the methyl ester of fatty acids. Remember, soap is sodium salt of fatty acids and methyl alcohol freely mixes with water. This is why you have a milky layer...milk is white because of suspended fat globules.

where did this water come from? The air. Humidity that is trapped in the pod condenses out when the temperature drops. Pods are not well sealed.

how to fix? Drying agent, like magnesium sulfate that has been baked in the oven at 400 F for three or four hours. Magnesium sulfate that is fully dry absorbs its weight in water....then it becomes Epsom Salt. It does not dissolve in diesel or gasoline, it only absorbs the water in these fuels. You only need a cup or so of perfectly dry magnesium sulfate to get rid of the problem. But you have to decant or filter the fuel off the Epsom salt.

 

[dawico]

If you know that the 50 gallons was originally diesel fuel, then you could pump it out into a barrel, then add gasoline to it at about 5-10%, do not agitate it, then leave it to settle for about a week or two, then pump the top 90% off into your fuel tank, and you should be good to go. The bottom 5-10% is likely to be crud and/or water.

Yes, it is diesel.

I will try that. Thank you.

 

[Keith_J]

If you add gasoline that is 10% ethanol! more issues will happen. Doesn't take much water in gasohol to cause the alcohol to come out of solution.

 

[Jeepsinker]

I have yet to find a solution to my issue. I added a bottle of "Killem" biocide to each as well as a bottle of Stabil diesel biocide to one of them and let them sit without agitation. It still all looks like milky water. How long does it normally take for biocide to kill off an infection? And does the fuel normally clear up afterward? Or does it stay cloudy?

 

[Keith_J]

Cloudy fuel is from water, no potion you add will remove water, only a drying agent like dehydrated magnesium sulfate as I described above removes water. Well, you could boil the water out but that is dangerous.

Bacteria can only infect diesel if there is water. Remove water and problems are gone.

magnesium sulfate is Epsom salt. Or Epsom salt is hydrated magnesium sulfate.

 

[Captaincarrier]

When we find a tank with milky white fuel we know the owner has tried to treat water with one of the local available additives. The milky white is from the amount of water is greater than the additive.
Most biocides do not address the water (the food source for what most call algae), biocides kill some of the bacteria but doesn't nothing to stop the on going growth. We service over 400 tanks per year, both gasoline & diesel and based on what we see, biocides are our money makers.

 

[Jeepsinker]

Ok then, another question. At Napa they sell a large equipment fuel tank water absorber, like a 3-4 foot long 3" round tampon that is reusable. If I drop one of those in there would it absorb water from the fuel or just off the water bottom? Btw, I do have the tank water drains plumbed with 1" steel line with a ball valve for shutoff going to a goldenrod water/ fuel separator with water block filter, so I actively keep the water bottom drained at least every other day.
Edit: Also note that I keep my pods full, to the point that I often find them overflowing on a warm day and I have to pump some out into another tank. So condensation should be at a minimum.

 

[Beyond Biodiesel]

Most #2 diesel has a few percent biodiesel added for lubrication issues, this can absorb more water than straight petroleum diesel since bd is the methyl ester of fatty acids. Remember, soap is sodium salt of fatty acids and methyl alcohol freely mixes with water. This is why you have a milky layer...milk is white because of suspended fat globules.

This makes sense, so the white layer might be gelled biodiesel.

where did this water come from? The air. Humidity that is trapped in the pod condenses out when the temperature drops. Pods are not well sealed.

Yes, I agree.

how to fix? Drying agent, like magnesium sulfate that has been baked in the oven at 400 F for three or four hours. Magnesium sulfate that is fully dry absorbs its weight in water....then it becomes Epsom Salt. It does not dissolve in diesel or gasoline, it only absorbs the water in these fuels. You only need a cup or so of perfectly dry magnesium sulfate to get rid of the problem. But you have to decant or filter the fuel off the Epsom salt.

This is useful information, thanks.

 

[Jeepsinker]

There is no biodiesel in my fuel, as it isn't exactly diesel. F24 I believe is what it is. I get motor pool drainings for low cost. I thought I had mentioned that, but looking back I see that I never did. Apologies.

 

[Jeepsinker]

Just a bit of an update on this matter:
I've set up my 1.5" pump with a beta systems filter assembly and a goldenrod water block filter assembly in line and have been recirculating the fuel in one pod. The fuel is clearing up and I am going through about one goldenrod filter every hour I run it. It seems that most of the contamination is indeed suspended water. At $18 per filter it is getting expensive, but not as expensive as fuel. I just don't understand how it went from clean clear fuel to being this full of water in two days, especially with the tank being full. I've never had this problem before.
Edit: I have also installed one of the giant fuel tank tampons and am seeing no results with it. There is no water settled out on the bottom of the tank. I feel like I wasted $75 bucks on it.

 

[gimpyrobb]

I have a bunch of 5-micron water blocking filters dirt cheap, but the headers they use has like 3/8 fittings on them. You would have to put 4 of them in series in order to flow enough.

 

[Jeepsinker]

Are those the ones that you sell with the lift pump housing for the CUCV?