Good Fuel Maintenance Starts With Fuel Sampling

Imagine a scenario where a hospital faces a power outage but finds its backup generators faltering due to poor fuel quality. Such a situation underscores the critical importance of fuel sampling - not just as a regulatory requirement but as a safeguard for your essential operations. Whether you're managing a healthcare facility, an industrial plant, or any mission-critical installation, understanding and executing proper fuel sampling is pivotal. This blog post demystifies the process, offering easy-to-follow tips and insights to ensure you're always prepared.

Start With The Basics

Make sure your sampling device and containers are clean. You’d think this is elementary, but apparently not.

The kind of container does matter. Glass is inert but requires more specialized packaging if you’re going to mail off the sample to a lab. A clean plastic container made with fluorinated plastic is quite acceptable. You need the plastic to be fluorinated to prevent softening and reactivity over time.

Be sure not to overfill the container – 80% full is a safe benchmark that allows for expansion of the liquid inside.

How Much Do You Need?

How much of a sample do you need? The exact answer depends on the specific tests you want done – some tests require more than others. One quart is a good rule of thumb to follow.

Be sure to pull two fuel samples, though. You want to keep a backup in case something happens to the first one.

How To Take Samples

How best to take fuel samples? There are two main ways to do this.

The industry standard is a device called a Bacon Bomb. Some call it a Pencil Bomb or a Fuel Thief. It looks like a cylinder that is lowered into the tank, with a cord that can be pulled to allow fuel to flow into the cylinder at the appropriate time. They are usually made from brass or some non-sparking metal for safety. These are probably the best devices to use because, at the very least, they allow you to take your samples at the right depth for what you need to find out. Don't underestimate the importance of that.

Alternatively, if your fuel storage tank has sampling valves, it's acceptable to drain samples from those. The ASTM protocols allow you to do this provided you run about 5-10 seconds of fuel out of the drain before filling your sampling container.

Where to Take Samples

When sampling from a fuel tank, you should take one sample each from the middle and bottom of the tank. Yet we don't mean the true middle and true bottom. You never want to take samples from the dead bottom of the tank because that's where all the water and sediment are. Instead, you want to take it 3-6 inches above the bottom. And for the middle sample, 18" above the bottom is usually good enough.

If you get fuel deliveries regularly, another idea would be to take a sample directly from the fuel delivery truck. This would give you a fuel sample representative of what was being received from the fuel terminal itself.

Handling & Shipping It Off For Testing

Sampling is fine, but once you have your sample, the clock is now ticking. Fuel samples change over time, especially when considering microbial testing. You want to put fuel samples on ice until they're ready to ship. It's also recommended, if you're using a clear glass sample container, to wrap them to keep out sunlight.

When sending the sample off for testing, make sure the container has a tightly-sealed cap. Put the bottle inside a plastic bag, seal the bag, then package it in a corrugated box. This is an acceptable shipping container for petroleum fuel samples.

You may be interested in these other posts:

• "Wow" Facts on Contaminated Diesel Fuel. Be Prepared.
• Fuel Storage Issues Explained: Why Stored Fuel is Easily Contaminated
• 7 Signs of Diesel Fuel Contamination by Microbes, Fungus and Bacteria