Mysterious Particles in My Heating Oil

Hi Seola,

Have there been any unsolved murders in your area lately? A body would not fit normally, but a wood chipper....

OK, sorry! - it sounds like an exasperating problem. I would get it scoped; there's nothing like a visual inspection.

I think it would take a long time for biologics to decompose in fuel oil. The tar in the La Brea tar pits, an asphaltic material which is petroleum-based, actually acts as a preservative.

Mike

Thanks for the comments - we havenn't been missing any smal children or pets so I'll stick with the mouse theory. I agree getting the tank scoped will reveal any "secrets".

Thanks for writing!

Hi again Seola.

Let us know what you find!

Mike

Poss it is a BIO fuel and it is ALGIE pardon spl we had diesel fuel do the same thing

Hi guest,

You mean to say that you had algae (you had it almost right) growing in diesel fuel? That surprises me. Where do you live - what's the climate like?

However, even if this is true, it does not explain the presence of hair and collagen!

Best Regards,

Mike

To clarify, the analysis we had done specifically ruled out anything like an algae or bacteria and we also had additives put into the tank that would have killed them off anyway. It identified something of biologic origin that contained hair and skin. Ideas include rats or mice that somehow got down the vent tube and into the tank. If an animal got into the tank before it was installed, we would have likely seen the problem years ago - instead it has only been the last 6 months. I have relatives across the US all in the heating and cooling bisiness and none of them have run across this in maintaining home or commercial systems. We will continue to diligently change filters and have the oil retested in another 6 months. We also do not have any presence of water in the tank - have tested for that as well.

Have you used the fuel conditioner since the tank was new...........if not this maybe, only maybe, a problem..........I have seen that happen on numerous occassoins in the past, that was was with distiilate..........and heating oil is akin to distillate and kerosene.

Dang!

Ya learn something new every day (if you're open to it)!

But... doesn't algal growth require sunlight? Kind of hard to get in a tank.

Thanks MOBI.

Mike

.............my experience is mainly with distillate, professional fishermen that I teach have had numerous problems with fungal and bacterial growth in fuel tanks.

One problem that I find is that fishermen think that their fuel tanks are clean, when the last time they were cleaned was five years ago...............at sea water is a problem...........apart from entering fuel tanks through vents, filling line and soundings become a problem because they do not replace o-rings/gaskets.

At the interface between the fuel and water............the catalytic fines and water create havoc with fungi and fuel degradation.

I doubt you've found Jimmy Hoffa. It's probably algae growing in the oil as Mobi said. Common occurrence in diesel tanks in boats, especially if the fuel isn't used quickly. You don't need much water for the algae to get started and once they are they are a pain to get rid of.

One thing to do is to install a second pump and filter loop that doesn't include the feed to the burner. Put in a good dose of fuel biocide and then run the fuel through the filter loop to start to strain out the dead algae. Or drain the tank and then clean it out.

Cleaning out the tank w/o the biocide will reduce the problem in the short term but the algae won't be gone, they will only be fewer for a little while.

Having thought about this -

Yes, the filter loop is something I have had to do on hydraulic systems, until we started finding the cigarette butts in the oil. But looping a small pump and filter between the suction and return/overflow pipes which are usually distant from each other may clean the remains.

Before doing this I would try a flexible vacuum cleaner (eduction, air powered preferred to be explosion proof) hose down the vent pipe, of course stopping short of the oil level, to remove any loose debri. The fill pipe may also have a horizontal leg that if the fill cap were left off could let mice in and then when filling they would be flushed into the tank, seems more likely they entered this way then the vent line.

Which leads me to another idea, did somebody sabotage the tank by dumping in the materials, this is unlikely considering how mice get into anything stationary.

Okay.. Animals or parts of animals in the tank? Perhaps some worker's cheeseburger? (seriously).. Or an algae growth of some sort in the fuel, fuel lines or .. well...

Let's go back to animals and hairy cheeseburgers.

JL Mealer

Mealer Companies

http://mealercompanies.com

That black junk is what was left from the refinery process when the tanks was not cleaned really good. The tar for roofing materail is the last thing removed after refining. IE shut downs & clean outs.

..........that of course is why, if you have fuel problems, (and even if you do not), always check it before filling.............with distillates, you check, not the colour, but the clarity...........if the fuel is cloudy, it indicates contamination........what it is, it doesn't matter, it is contaminated.

Hi Seola

Did you test the incoming oil,prior to loading into your tank ?

I had such experience few years back with cracked oil (diesel fuel from a used oil visbreaker ) that had suspended asphaltene particles

You may need to add a demulsifying chemical that precipitates the particles wherefrom they can be removed as a sludge .

Good Luck

Waiel

Is there a horizontal leg to the vent pipe, could be the mice built a nest there and will be around for some time to come.

I also once had a vehicle that was in storage, filled the radiator and started to drive it, could only go a couple miles before overheat, took the radiator top tank off and rodded it out to remove the mouse nest materials that I couldn't get by flushing and back-flushing.

Also once was on a job site where the hydraulic oil tests had shown bacterial growth after some 20+ years in service, we ended up cleaning the reservoir interior and flushing the piping to change the oil.

Also once had a mouse get into a car, so I put poison in there for it, then it stunk in there for a long time, trap versus poison mice in a vehicle.

I had to do a road call on a Saturday, because I did not want to leave the vehicle inoperable over the weekend. When I got to the truck, it had a "no charge" problem. When I got to the fan belt area I found a dead rat that had gotten caught in the belts at last start. It sucked pulling that rat out of there. But if I had let it rot for 2 more days in the hot Florida sun, It would have been worse.

You have to understand that these oil tankers are by far clean. Not to mention that now #2 heating oil is a mixture of all the crud oil produced. That is to say at one time in the past the crap stuff, sludge (black thick sludge)that facturies, schools, commercial buildings use to burn is now mixed in with #2 home heating oil. It's been that way for at least 10 plus years now. It does not really affect your burners operation other than the fact that you must do a tune up and cleaning once a year.

I have watched and notice for years that a newly cleaned furnace purrs like a kitten and after several months you can actually notice/hear the difference in the burners operation when running. Thats when the carbon build up is building up in your fire box and flue. also the burner nozzel(as well as the screen filter in the nozzel back section starts to clogg uo) starts to build up this black crude on the face of the nozzel, all of which causes the burner to run at a much lower efficiency rating, say from origionally at 80% down to 60% or even lower depending on the length of burner operation in months has elasped.

This is just the way things are today. How ever if you faithfully clean your burner once a year and the add what they call, I thick HOT Spot, its an addative to your oil tank to help brake up and burn that sludge a little bit better. Any plumbing supply house will care some brand of this and even the oil burner cleaning guys have this stuff in their trucks.

Brian

Thanks. We have annual maintenance (has been more often sonce this problem) and yes, have added the HOT treatment in addition to sometihng much more toxic added by my HVAC company.

Again, we have the tests that show NO ALGAE, NO BACTERIA in the oil so are trying to figure out how to get biologic particulates out of the oil. Have had the tank "splash washed" this year removing most of the oil and change filters monthly.

Appeciate all the input - have learned a lot!

heating oil is a mixture of all the crud oil produced.

In Australia home heating oils are alkanes..........akin to distillate and kerosene, even petrol and octane are alkanes, as are gases methane to butane.............also solids like paraffin wax.

Large industrial plants..........and they seem to be getting less and less..........burn FFO (furnace fuel oil) or bunkers in their boilers or large medium speed engines.

Many factory owners elect to burn a blended residual oil...........this fuel comes from a mixture of distillate, that failed to meet the requirements of an automotive distillate, and about 10%-15% FFO............this doesn't cause half the maintenance problems that exist using FFO............and its cheaper than automotive distillate (ULSD).

It looks as though we are a little more civilised than those that live on the other side of the Pacific............buning that crud you burn must do wonders for air purity.

We do exceptionally well in that respect............all our power stations, on the more populated area of Australia, the East coast, are all hydroelectric ..............whoops,a slight problem with the memory.............coal fired (and our coal varies from sub-bituminous to bituminous)................not only do we burn it ourselves...........but we sell shit ............here we go again............ship loads to China, India and other Asian countries.........we are the largest exporter of coal in the world.............so we really care about our environment as well!!!!! It would not be quite as bad if it was anthracite coal, but its like your heating oil.........crud.

Just a couple of examples to refresh the memory............

Pollution from a coal fired power station in California.

A coal fired power station in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales, Australia

Air pollution from a coal fired power station in China

It may be of interest to note that if the smoke from a power station is white, if it is any other colour it is toxic. (this was from an unconfirmed report).

I live with low mileage vehicles all the time. Algae is always a concern. I have been told that there is algae that grows on the surface and some that will grow under the surface. We treat the storage tank, and the truck tanks every 6 months.

What ever algae is there will die, and fall out of suspension and be sucked up into the filters. So filter changes are more important on these low mileage trucks.

I would suggest that you check the incoming fuel for contamination. If the fuel is contaminated on the way in, the problem transfers to the supplier. If not, Harbor Freight has a remote scope for sale cheap, I have heard.

How big is the tank? How much fuel are you consuming per month?

I think you may have found a potential cause with a rodent. But where is the pest now? If you have no other solutions, you could revert to a larger capacity filter, that would allow the filter to stay in service longer. Contact a filter specialist. Good luck.

Thanks - we have a 550 gal tank and currently are using 2.5 gals a day, down from 5 gal a day in winter. We have changed to a larger Gar-Ber (sp?) spin on filter - all of my famioy is inthe HVAC business so they have been my "consultants" on filters . We had some mice in the wood pile and under the bird feeder, however nothing out of the ordinary.

The tank must have some form of venting. Have you located it and tried looking into that?

BTW, welcome th the insanity.

..........you could well be right there bob.............its the sane ones that you need to look out for.................you never know what they will do next.

My wife found a mouse in the cooking oil under the sink. Something had happened to the cap, and she put a rubber band around some plastic to cover the top of the oil bottle.

The mouse chewed the plastic away and fell in the bottle and drown in the oil.

She said the mouse looked amazingly lifelike, there, in the plastic bottle of canola.

According to our experience it would seem that "oil" would inhibit decomposition.

Algae and bacteria will grow in oil and kerosene and when I was a Ramp Rat, part of fueling Learjets was to add the inhibitor Prist to the fuel.

Does sound as if you have mice or rats nesting in a vent pipe, or whatever ships that have been delivering your oil have rats that are fighting over turf and food and pushing weak rats into the oil.

Possibly there is a rat war going on on the high seas we are not fully aware of?

How about a bird. The some times sit on vent pipes to get warm the air venting from them is usually warmer in winter then the outside temp. Some times the gases can over whelm them and they fall in. When the vent was rerouted was it all the way from the tank. If not could be that the carcass is still there and as it decomposes bits fall in to the fuel.

filter the oil better before It gets to the burner. install a garber filter. its more like a car filter that forces the oil through. most oil filters just pick up what falls out of suspension on the way by

"most oil filters just pick up what falls out of suspension on the way by"

That is why he was told to get a larger filter. The larger the filter, the slower the flow. The slower the flow, the more crap falls out of suspension.

Lets not get strainers and filters mixed up.............a filter whether it be a depth type filter or edge type filter will remove all contaminants over the specified filter size, e.g. an 0,008" filter will remove any solid contaminant and sludges, etc., above 0.008".Your filter life is dependant on the cleanliness of the medium being filtered.

Of course the size of the filter used depends on the smallest internal working clearances........and this we hope will protect our machinery...........unless of course the filter is made in China!!!!!!...........Sorry wrong thread!!!!!

You spoke about car oil filters, these and filters on diesel lubrication systems and some hydraulic filters are full flow by-pass filters. If these types of filters become blocked they will automatically by-pass the filter and you then have a full flow of unfiltered oil to the engine or system.

The supplier should be able to confirm any of your suspicions. Other wise.... ever heard of Jimmy Hoffa!

hi a vent pipe would be very inviting to bats .can you syphon or suck tank dry flush then refill.or how about a day tank that can be readily checked.

that sounds like good advice, come to think of it we had a problem with bats in another tank we have. The bats didn,t bother our oil tank but it could be worth a try.

..........probably better to have bats in your oil tank, than................"bats in the belfry"

i guess its like ants in the pants!

Now that everyone has thrashed this topic to death, here's my 2 cents worth. Rats need only an 1/8" crack to get through. Thier lower jaw unhinges, same as with mice, who need even less space. My guess (based on experience) is that the delevery 'person' forgot his gloves and with frozen fingers fumbled the fill cap (frack it). You may not have a mouse problem. Try 'mice', as in family of. The next time you got a fill-up the nest was flushed into the tank. I which case vacuuming the tank is your only option. Check the threads on your fill cap to see if it is difficult it engage, use a thread file and a new cap if this is so. Change suppliers if not.

Or do like me. Go solar. I have never found any critter residue in my woodstove back-up heating supply.