Diesel fuel and polymers

[waterdonkey]

Talking with the maintenance foreman today about a seminar he attended a few weeks ago. One session he attended was on fuel.

He was told that the diesel they are producing today has a polymer added to it and the "shelf life" for the deisel was only 2 weeks because the polymers will start to settle out in the tank. We have seen this happen with synthetic oils in our pumps that the change interval is 3 years.

Has anybody heard of this? Think of all of those stand-by generators.

 

[Pugster]

Worked for major oil company distributer for 40 years. Never heard of it.

 

[illflem]

Diesel in the 1000 gallon farm tank has sat all winter for as many years as I can remember without a problem. Could it be a recent change, maybe this year will be different?

 

[AKAMAC]

Long string polymers are normally used for "flocking" algae and suspended solids out of water, IE, waste water treatment plants. I've never heard of an application in the fuel industry, although center pick-up fuel cells that are prone to algae growth might be treated with polymers before cleaning. I personally would'nt want that goo to get into my fuel system. Looks and feels like silicone that does'nt solidify.