According to Mark Watson, "A lot of people don’t realize the issues with today’s diesel fuel – the need for cleaning and the need for maintenance. They’re used to just having a tank, putting the diesel in it, and letting it sit there until they need it."
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Mark Watson (center) with his brother Sean (left) and father John (right). |
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Watson knows that line of thinking is no longer true. As president of Gulfstream Petroleum Services, he said Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was responsible for spawning a lot of new regulations regarding generators and diesel fuel, and he specifically pointed out, "There’s now an expiration date on diesel fuel, so you have to constantly monitor it to make sure that when you need your generator, the fuel is good."
Watson is well familiar with the industry because his father had his own company that did the same work. "So I grew up in the business. In 2005 I started Gulfstream Petroleum Services, and I was the only employee. I did a lot of work subcontracting for my Dad. Then he semi-retired and started working for me, and we hired two other employees. We do anything and everything related to fuel tanks – we do installations, removals, repairs, consulting; we do fuel polishing, tank cleaning, monthly compliance inspections. We’re a full licensed contractor, so if you need anything related to fuel tanks, we can do it."
Gulfstream has done work for such clients as the Federal Aviation Administration, the Port of Miami, and the water and sewer departments of Dade County. Watson is particularly familiar with hospitals because he has worked with them doing installation and construction of the tanks, and as a result, he knew that hospitals were drastically increasing their capacity.
"After Katrina, the thinking went from, ‘I need power for a couple of days until the power company can come in,’ to the possibility that, ‘The power company may not be able to get here for a couple of weeks.’ It used to be that hospitals might have a 10,000-gallon tank to run their generator. In some cases, they have now increased their capacity five times, to 50,000 gallons."
With all of the other things Watson previously handled, fuel cleaning was not one of them. If customers called and requested it, he would have to subcontract it out. "It got to the point where we said, ‘We know fuel tanks, we have trucks, we have equipment, we have guys, we have dollars. So let’s expand what we do, buy the equipment and do it ourselves. So that’s what we’re doing."
He explained there are multiple reasons why diesel fuel has to be cleaned, one of which is that if it sits in the tank, it can go bad. In cleaning, he said the fuel is removed, run through a series of filters that take out particles by size, then sent through a centrifuge, which spins it and takes out particles by weight. It then goes back into the opposite side of the tank. "So as we run the diesel fuel through our system and pump it under high pressure back into the tank, it agitates the sides and the bottom of the tank, and kind of scrubs it as the fuel is being pushed down to the other end. We filter it for many hours, depending on the size of the tank and how dirty the fuel is."
How often this needs to be done depends on a variety of factors. Watson said hospitals are required to sample their fuel annually and send it for a laboratory analysis. Some automatically clean the fuel every year and send in the sample. Others send a sample to the lab and if it comes back OK, they do nothing until the following year.
Factors that can influence the condition of the fuel include how full the tank is. "It’s better to keep your tank full, because if it’s half full you’re going to get condensation, which accelerates the algae and micro-organisms that can grow in diesel fuel. So the number one key is to keep moisture out by keeping the tank full."
Other factors include buying fuel from a reputable source, and how tanks are taken care of. "If your tanks have been sitting outside uncovered for 30 years, they’re probably going to have a bit of sediment inside vs. if they’re brand new. Your best bet is to just stay on top of it."
Good advice from someone who knows all aspects of the business.
