Diesel fuel biodeterioration is not affected by the fuel’s sulfur content.

There is a broadly embraced misperception about the relationship between diesel fuel’s sulfur content and its toxicity to microorganisms. This misperception is driven by two logical flaws.

Logical argument #1:

There has been an increase in the number of microbially contaminated fuel systems since the use of ultra-low-sulfur diesel (ULSD) became mandatory.

Therefore, microbial contamination in low…

Opportunity Cost at the Forecourt
In my first Fuel & Fuel System Microbiology post in November 2016, I wrote about the cost of repairing and remediating sites at which underground storage tanks had leaked. At the time, I have not fully considered that most of this cost burden was borne by insurance underwriters – not site owners.
Today, I want to return to a theme I’ve been writing about since long before my November 2016 blog post: retail site opportunity cost. As I write this blog,…

I thank Michelle Hilger for inspiring me to write about today’s topic – the disconnect between the guidance NFPA provides about emergency generator fuel supplies and reality. Michelle chairs the Emergency Generating Systems Association’s (EGSA’s) Fuel: Fact or Fiction Working Group.

NFPA (National Fire Prevention Association) Standards Related to Fuel Storage

The NFPA provides fuel condition monitoring guidance in two documents:

NFPA 110, Standard for Emergency and Standby…

In my October What’s New blog post, I highlighted several of my primary takeaways from PEI’s 2018 convention. In this post, I’ll focus on one new commercial offering. If it works as promoted, this system can be a game changer for contamination control in underground storage tanks (UST). At the convention Veeder-Root showed a model of their new CleanDiesel In-Sump Fuel Conditioning System (ISFC). I haven’t seen any field data from retail or commercial sites using this system, so I’m…

The Petroleum Equipment Institute (PEI) held its 2018 convention at the Las Vegas Convention Center from 07 to 10 October 2018. As usual, the PEI convention was held in conjunction with the much larger National Association of Convenience Store (NACS) convention. Today, I’ll focus on a few items that are particularly relevant to fuel and fuel system microbiology. I’m not going to attempt to provide anything approaching an overview of the entire convention. Instead I’ll report and discuss a…