How long do you store your diesel fuel

[Morrow1]

Hey,
Just wondering how long you store your diesel fuel with or without additives? Is it really only 6-12 months?
Thanks

 

[Digger556]

Pretty much. Don't know why, but diesel seems to last longer in metal containers vs plastic ones.

One year in storage in a plastic can and I have all sorts of nasty stuff growing in the can. Metal cans and transfer tanks, the diesel last up to a year without signs of biological growth.

However I still use a stabilizer like Pri-D. I will not leave fuel in the 802a's plastic tank for more than a couple of months.

 

[WWRD99]

Hey,
Just wondering how long you store your diesel fuel with or without additives? Is it really only 6-12 months?
Thanks

In my world I think it really has to do with location...I'm in central Pa...weather doesn't swing crazy hot for long so condensation inside my tanks isn't much of an issue...plus I keep them full...all 3 are not in direct sunlight and have some form of cover from sunlight...I have them set up to draw from the bottom with filters mounted to each tank which means any water that might get in there gets filtered and burned out in my furnace...I burn close to 500 gallons a year so I use about half my stock a year...there's tons of info about what people do in southern areas where temps and humidity is high most of the year.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[Chainbreaker]

If you want to preserve today's diesel which has a % of Biodiesel in it you have to treat it with a Biocide to kill the critters that can form over time. Here in Oregon, due to our high humidity rainy/foggy winters the tank vent air infiltration/breathing due to thermal expansion/contraction of fuel/air via tank vents really presents a long term fuel storage challenge.

Below is what I choose to use to treat my fuel. The Biobore JF is a good Industrial Biocide and Optilube XPD is a good cetane boost, lubricant and injector cleaner all-in-one treatment. Other equivalent brands should perform as well.



In addition, if you have an auxiliary tank you might consider filtering the air that is being inhaled/exhaled by the tank's vent via a desiccant bead type filter. The below picture shows my desiccant filter and my "Talk-To-The-Hand" experiment.

When I originally mounted my new desiccant filter the beads were totally orange. However as they absorb moisture from the incoming air they went from orange to purple to black. That's when you know its time to replace the filter with a new one. However, rather than purchasing replacements every few months I decided to try the trick of removing the beads and baking them in the oven to release the moisture collected in them and rejuvenate them.

I used an internet recipe to cook my beads and when done they looked just like "new orange beads" with moisture removed. However, due to the sealed nature of the filter I bought I had to use a ~3" hole saw to cut the top out of the desiccant canister to remove the beads. After baking & pouring the beads back into the desiccant filter I found a perfect size aluminum lid to plug the hole in the top. However, the lid did not form an airtight seal. Rather than using silicone it to seal it up completely I had an idea... What if I allow it to just breath freely through the lid into some sort of breathing bag (a crude rebreather). The idea was as the aux tank heats up during day exhaling and then inhaling at night why not reuse that desiccant filtered dry air. It should, in theory, be drier air than new incoming unfiltered air. So what could I use as a rebreather bag that would capture the exhaled air and allow it to be sucked back in at night?

I had a difficult time finding something that was the right size to fit the cannister tightly and allow for expansion/contraction. Then I had an ahhh-haaa moment... a surgical glove should do the trick. I robbed a surgical glove from my wife's stash, she's a Nurse, and it fit perfectly around the cannister. I put it on deflated with no air in it late in the evening and later added a rubber band around the wrist to make sure it remains air tight and would not take flight when fully pressurized as the air temp gets hotter in summer. I don't know what the life surgical gloves used this way will be but I can easily replace as required.

The next morning around noon I opened up the front roll up trailer cover and there it was... saluting me in all its "Talk-To-The-Hand" inflated glory! Its now been on a couple weeks and "the hand job" seems to be working quite well in reusing its own filtered tank breaths during each day/night cycle. I hope to get more life out of my beads and more importantly less incoming moisture laden air at night when it cools and contracts.




My hope is I can go for a few years with it being treated fuel and benefit from my crude rebreather attached to my desiccant filter. Perhaps I can go 4 or so years without the fuel getting gunky, that's if I don't consume it before then. Time will tell.

I also eventually plan to build a small portable "fuel polisher" a pump + filter(s) fuel recirculation rig to do periodic fuel conditioning of my gensets main & aux tanks as necessary.


.

 

[Dieselmeister]

I store my diesel in MFC's, with Biobor and PRI-D added. I usually rotate the fuel at 5 year intervals, although I tested one by keeping it 9 years, with no problems. Water, heat, oxygen, and certain metals are the enemy of diesel (and other fuel as well). Open tanks that can breath are the worst containers to store fuel, unless you add a breather / descicator like mentioned in a previous post. I always run the fuel through a water separator funnel when pouring it from the can, or through a water separator / filter using a small airtex fuel pump. Since all fuel inherently contains some minute traces of water, crud will settle, and bacteria will grow in the bottom of the tank, unless treated. This can be as simple as settled water, to sludge, like raw eggs. ( I once filled the tank of my hmmwv at a discount station, out in the boonies in Wyoming, and then, out in the middle of nowhere, it started running rough, and almost died. After checking the filter, I wound up cleaning out about a coffe can of sludge that looked like brown slime. So even commercial tanks have problems). When I used to work with large standby generators, we would "polish" the fuel once a year, by running it through a "polishing unit", which is a fancy name of a fuel filtering and cleanup unit. You can build your own, with an electric fuel pump, and a filter / separator from ebay or amazon. See the attached writeup from BP - old but still valid.

 

[ldmack3]

I store my diesel in MFC's, with Biobor and PRI-D added. I usually rotate the fuel at 5 year intervals, although I tested one by keeping it 9 years, with no problems. Water, heat, oxygen, and certain metals are the enemy of diesel (and other fuel as well). Open tanks that can breath are the worst containers to store fuel, unless you add a breather / descicator like mentioned in a previous post. I always run the fuel through a water separator funnel when pouring it from the can, or through a water separator / filter using a small airtex fuel pump. Since all fuel inherently contains some minute traces of water, crud will settle, and bacteria will grow in the bottom of the tank, unless treated. This can be as simple as settled water, to sludge, like raw eggs. ( I once filled the tank of my hmmwv at a discount station, out in the boonies in Wyoming, and then, out in the middle of nowhere, it started running rough, and almost died. After checking the filter, I wound up cleaning out about a coffe can of sludge that looked like brown slime. So even commercial tanks have problems). When I used to work with large standby generators, we would "polish" the fuel once a year, by running it through a "polishing unit", which is a fancy name of a fuel filtering and cleanup unit. You can build your own, with an electric fuel pump, and a filter / separator from ebay or amazon. See the attached writeup from BP - old but still valid.

Thanks for the tech data!

 

[cuad4u]

Two years ago I could buy red diesel fuel at $1.49 a gallon in bulk. Since I live on a 550 acre tree farm with 5 antique tractors, that I use on the farm, I filled a 1000 steel tank with red diesel fuel. I added a bio-cide when it was bought and I add bio-cide every 6-8 months. There is a drain valve on the bottom of the 1000 gallon tank. The tank is slanted down toward the valve on the bottom. Every 4-6 months or so I crack the drain valve and put a little diesel fuel into a clear jar. So far the diesel fuel is still "clear" with no crud. When I pump diesel fuel out of the tank into tractors or generators, there is a final filter in the hose. So far there is very little crud in the filter when I pump diesel fuel out of the tank. IMO if you do this, diesel fuel will last at least 2 years. Since I still have around 700 gallons in the tank after 2 years, I hope the diesel fuel will stay fresh for several more years.

 

[Morrow1]

Awesome!

 

[Ray70]

Lately it seem that long term storage ( even with proper additives ) may have suffered some, but bulk fuel storage is not as big of an issue as is machine storage.
Seems today's fuels tend to gum and varnish much faster than days past, when left long term in the small spaces within IP's etc.
Thereby necessitating periodic exercising.
I recently picked up a motor from an 003 specifically because it had a "new" IP in it. ( although it was a rebuilt American Bosch ) I removed the pump to examine it to be sure it was good, which it was.
Left it on my work bench for a month or 2 and went to put it away this past weekend and it is now stuck pretty good.
The fuel left in it was not that old and admittedly the exposure to air definitely doesn't help, but I was a bit surprised how fast that went bad! Luckily its on the bench and should be easy to fix.

 

[Chainbreaker]

I 100% agree with Ray70 regarding the gum/varnish factor. Seems much worse than the pre-biodiesel days.

Here is a short article on fuel storage that may help understand the timeline for diesel and how to extend it.

Edit: Here is an informative article on handling water in fuel. To emulsify or demulsify tis the question. Since a generator sits for long periods unused and is not an on road moving machine it would seem to land in the demulsify side if you have the proper filters/drains to drain off the water.

 

[Morrow1]

Has anyone used something like a goldenrod diesel water/particle filter for auxiliary tanks on their auxiliary tank? It seems like it wouldn’t hurt the auxiliary fuel pump by creating to much restriction?

If this was used I wonder how long the diesel would go for?

 

[mavucci]

Has anyone used something like a goldenrod diesel water/particle filter for auxiliary tanks on their auxiliary tank? It seems like it wouldn’t hurt the auxiliary fuel pump by creating to much restriction?

If this was used I wonder how long the diesel would go for?

i use the golden rod filter/ separator from my aux tank. The fuel in the 30 gal aux tank was about a year and a half old. Treated with a biocide. I live in Massachusetts. I run the generator every other month and top off the onboard tank from the aux tank. 2 weeks ago we lost power for 3 days after a storm and it was my first extended run with the generator. No issues with the aux fuel filter/ pump. Fuel ran fine and I was able to top off the auxtank with fresh fuel and more additives. The golden rod filter looks clean with no sludge in the bowl/ filter.

 

[Morrow1]

Cool thanks

 

[Chainbreaker]

Just to add a couple of relevant updates on diesel fuel maintenance & treatment as relating to how long you can store diesel fuel.

In reading another current thread on "Tank Blanketing" @Zed254 provided a link to "Practical Sailor" with a link to this article: Diesel Fuel System Maintenance Best Practices

I also found another good article there on microbial growth in diesel fuel onboard sailboats: Diesel Biocides Take On Contaminated Boat Fuel

 

[MixManSC]

I actually just ordered a Goldenrod water filter for my custom trailer belly tank. Good to hear others are using that one too. I'm also using XPD All-In-One fuel treatment which I also read about in another thread on here.