What you need to know for successful handling and use of today’s gasoline and diesel fuel blends.
The effects of the marine environment on today’s fuels, causes of fuel degradation and solutions are important topics for boaters of all kinds. In order to understand how to deal with today’s fuel blends, we will start with the goals and policies that lead to their creation.
The goal of the Clean Air Act of 1963 and the Energy Policy Act of 2005 were to reduce emissions, develop cleaner burning domestically produced energy resources that would aid in the relief of our dependency on foreign energy. A result is the development of two liquid biofuels, ethanol and biodiesel. These fuels blended with petroleum based gasoline and diesel fuel, do a very good job at helping to attain the goals of these two policy acts. These blends of domestically produced liquid fuels have greatly reduced combustion emissions, created jobs and drastically reduced our dependency on foreign energy.
Another result of these policy acts was the development of new crude oil extraction processes such as Hydro-Fracking and Hydro-Treating. These processes allow for the recovery of hard to reach crude resources and the reduction of pollutants such as sulfur. The down side is they increase water content of today’s fuels by 10 %.
These events aligned to create fuel blends today that have the ability to attract and hold more water than fuels of the past. Water has always been the primary reason for fuel degradation and poor fuel performance and is particularly important in a marine environment. The presence of water in fuel allows for microbial growth and eventually phase separation which has been so troublesome that it is the nucleus for the development of a multi-billion dollar fuel additive industry.
One thing is certain the successful reduction in emissions, jobs creation and our reduced dependency on foreign energy equate to these fuels being with us for a long time and most likely increase the respective percentage blended into petroleum based fuel.
This combination is cause for changing the handling and use protocols of todays fuel blends.
It is imperative for end users of these fuels to learn and understand the limits of these fuels. These fuels do not store well, they have slightly less energy content and are more sensitive to temperature and moisture than fuel of the past.
Petroleum education and outreach is necessary for end users to handle and use these fuels successfully.
Please join us for the “How to Manage Today’s Fuel in the Marine Environment” Seminar at the 2015 Providence Boat Show.
The handling and use of today’s fuel blends will be the topic of a seminar being conducted at the 2015 Providence Boat Show on Saturday, January 24, 2015, 4:00 PM at the Rhode Island Convention Center. Click here to download the Presentation Abstract to download the presentation abstract.
By: Robert S. Cerio, BOC, CEM
Managing Partner, USA Fuel Service, LLC.
