Fuel Polishing

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Those of you who have experience with either heavy equipment, marine or JP-type aircraft fuel storage, can you discuss or point me toward more or less automatic high filtration systems? Some questions I have: Is a continous system necessary or could a periodic polish by a contractor be more economic? Should the fuel be filtered as it is delivered into a new or clean tank or wait till it's in there? What type filtration is thought to be best (for instance there are centrifugal systems and simple media filters)? The initial application is for minimum two, maximum five, 10,000 gallon tanks in a storage/backup system. Thanks.

Edit: The specification is for ISO particle code 18/16/13 who ch I am not familiar with.

2nd Edit: I found the Parker-Hanefin (sp?) handbook on standards and still not sure if I know what I'm looking at.
 
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Visit your local airport and see what filters they are using for their "Jet A"

Now, the fuel delivered to the airport bulk tanks comes in on normal bulk semi-trucks.
However, the truck that drives up to your King Air 200 or Cessna Citation has a LOT of filters located on it.
 
The end application for this one is something of an unknown. It's a federal government RFP (Request for Proposal) for equipment to be delivered stateside for installation "by others", probably offshore and probably remote (I'm guessing). Whatever it may be for they apparently anticipate that the fuel will either sit for extended periods or have resupply with less than high quality fuel. I'm just doing some back of the envelope trades to see if there are other options to present that might make sense.

By the time an RFP hits the street and you haven't been working the problem leading up to that point, you'd better have a different and "better" answer to push. So that's where I am or rather that's where my customer is. Thanks for your input. I have found some mechanical systems from Racor, Alfa Laval, Reverso and others. My approach will be to treat the fuel chemically and then perodically clean it for water and debris of all sorts. I don't like the idea of a continuously running fuel circuit. Somebody's got to monitor it, fix it if it breaks, uses energy, etc. BTW I lived a couple of years in Lincoln. One of my girls was born there. Nice town.
 
I care for four 2000 kW Caterpillar generator sets at work. We have two six thousand gallon fuel tanks in the basement.
A few years back, the fills which are out in the sidewalk got water in them and froze. I ended up with a whole bunch of water in one of my tanks. I got the bulk of it out in my Racors but I also got a bunch of Algae in it as well. Between algaecide and fuel treatment, I also installed fuel polishers on both tanks. They run for a few hours every time I activate them and I change the filter every month to keep the flow rate up.
I had my fuel tested last month and it came back good. I feel fortunate I was able to save the fuel. It would have been almost unthinkable to drain that tank.
 
Thanks NYEng, that gives me some confidence. If I may ask, what units did you choose for the polishers? What sort of price target should I be looking for? Any maintenance issues with them? Thanks again for your input, much appreciated.
 
Fuelseps by Walker. They were about 4500 dollars apiece. No issues at all. I'm a freak for changing filters.
 
Originally Posted By: NYEngineer
Fuelseps by Walker. They were about 4500 dollars apiece. No issues at all. I'm a freak for changing filters.


A true BITOGGER then..... Thanks again for the help.
 
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