Fuel Storage Tank Maintenance: Fuel Tank Cleaning Best Practices Examined

In the course of running a business or managing facilities, there are many conflicts between doing just what you’re required to do versus doing what you know is best. Many times, what the regulations require doesn’t go as far as what the situation might call for from a best-practice standpoint. With all the pressure placed on businesses coming out of the global pandemic and recession, everyone operates with slim margins or narrow budgets. The temptation is to do the minimum needed to survive another day. Giving in to that temptation could end up costing you more in the long run.

Government minimums can fall short

For example, the properties of #2 diesel fuel are defined by pointing to a test slate from the ASTM (“D-975”). This lists the minimum levels the fuel needs to meet in order to legally be called “diesel fuel”. We say "legally", not in the sense that the Federal Government writes "diesel fuel is only diesel fuel if it meets D975", but in the sense that federal agencies like the EPA will reference specific parts of D975 in their rules about certain fuel properties. Maybe it's better to say D975 is the "market standard" for the properties of diesel fuel oil.

Look at D975 and take one property. Cetane rating is an important diesel fuel property – your engine can’t run well if the fuel’s cetane value is too low. D975 says you only have to have a minimum cetane rating of 40. But if your fleet’s diesel engines need 45 or 47, then just going with the allowed minimum is going to cost you more in the long run through lost performance. The cost of doing the minimum vs. what the best practices recommend.

Private groups may have a better pulse on the real world than the government when recommending higher standards. D975 says you can get away with 40 cetane in the diesel fuel. But groups like the SAE and EMA (Engine Manufacturers Association), along with groups in Japan and Europe are pushing for a cetane rating of 50 as the minimum standard for cetane. They’ve seen in the real world that the market minimum isn’t good enough.

Another good example of this concerns fuel storage tanks. For many, storage tanks tend to be a set-and-forget situation.

Tanks do require a certain amount of maintenance. Maintenance costs money. Facilities, like critical-use facilities (i.e. hospitals), are required to have fuel inspections yearly. But what of their tanks? These inspections often don't look at those.

Regulations vary by state, but many times, they are only required to do tank “servicing” every 3-5 years. Mind you, that doesn’t count the actual repair of tanks if they have a structural issue. But the servicing and cleaning of fuel storage tanks isn’t an annual requirement. But remember the difference between doing the minimum vs. what the best practices recommend.

Those on the ground level think differently

Now it comes out that private groups (i.e. Exxon, Texaco) are telling their associates that it’s a best practice to clean their fuel storage tanks on an annual basis. These groups on the ground level have seen the effects of recent fuel changes on how the fuels behave in storage. ULSD (ultra-low sulfur diesel) fuels have seen exponential increases in microbial contamination and sludge formation. They’re telling those they influence that they need to do tank servicing and cleaning every year as a best practice.

What do fuel tank services and fuel tank cleaning look like in this context? It involves monitoring for and removing the water, filtering the fuel, killing the microbes, and cleaning the sludge and dead organic matter out of the tank. It involves a certain amount of upfront cost, but smart businesses that follow these best practices include these costs in their PM budget. They know that PM is unavoidable and would rather spend the PM dollars than deal with the headaches.

So for your business, your fleet, and your facility, who are you going to listen to? A government bureaucrat or someone in your field who has firsthand knowledge of what’s happening and knows the best thing to do to prevent problems?