Water! Sounds counterintuitive, right? How can something so natural and beneficial to all living things, like water, be so bad for diesel fuel? This is because water provides an environment where microbial growth, or bugs, can exist and flourish. Microbial growth is destructive for your diesel fuel and fuel tanks and you should avoid it at all costs. With the warmer weather here, now is the time to know your microbial growth facts as bugs are a more frequent problem this time of year.
There are 4 main factors which cause microbial growth:
- Water- like all living beings, bugs need water.
- Biofuels- microbial growth is more often present in fuel with biodiesel. But you don’t use biodiesel? You really can’t avoid biodiesel in your fuel because these days, due to the renewable fuel mandate, 2-5% biodiesel is present in all diesel fuel per ASTM D975 specifications.
- Time- fuel sitting still for long periods of time is more likely to have microbial growth
- Temperature- bugs thrive in higher temperatures and especially hot summer days
So now that you understand what causes microbial growth, these are the signs that your fuel may be affected by it:
- Plugged filters and fuel lines
- Foul smelling fuel
- Injector issues
- Low MPG
Microbial growth can affect your truck fleets, construction equipment, skids tanks, and emergency generators. If you do have bugs in your fuel, it’s not the end of the world! At Diesel Direct, we are equipped to treat your microbial growth with microbiocide, an advanced 2 prong technology with the ability to kill the bugs in both the water phase and fuel phase. Contact us today if you think you may have this issue or to learn the proper steps to prevent it!
