Cars stutter as water leaks into fuel station

When granite businessman Mohammed Mujahid (32) stopped at a Shell fuel station on Kanakapura Road at 11.30
p.m. on Wednesday to fill diesel, little did he expect that his car would stop on the highway a few hundred metres
away.
After service technicians failed to reach the spot due to the pouring rain, he returned to the fuel station to see if he
could get some help, only to find another four to five people there with the same problem. Within an hour, the
number of irate customers swelled to close to 20. We began to suspect that the diesel was mixed with water and
that was the reason for the cars stopping on the highway, Mr. Mujahid said.
This was confirmed to The Hindu by the franchisee owner of the fuel station, Srinivas Reddy.
Due to the heavy rain, rainwater got mixed in one of the tanks. The station was working fine since morning, Mr.
Reddy said.
The police arrived around 12.30 a.m. Eight constables went to the petrol bunk to prevent any untoward incident,
said Ramappa, Inspector, Talghattapura police station.
There was leakage in the underground petrol tank and the diesel in one tank got mixed with rainwater, he said.
When Mr. Reddy told the customers he would get the tanks emptied and refilled, they refused as the contaminated
diesel would have already entered the engine.
Finally, he agreed to pay for servicing the vehicles. A tow vehicle was called in and the cars, most stuck in the
highway at different spots, were carted away.
Mr. Mujahid got his vehicle back from the service centre on Thursday evening.
If water enters the engine and is not removed for a long period, it can cause severe damage to the car engine.
Whatever we could do from our side to satisfy the customers, we have done, Mr. Reddy told The Hindu. He
refused to give further details as to how rainwater could have entered the tank.
Service Stations
Fuel Tank Cleaning for Gas & Diesel Storage Tanks
Cleaning fuel tanks alleviates some big problems for service stations.
You wouldnt expect your fuel storage tanks to be spotless. But you would be surprised at whats lying at the
bottom of them. Heres just a sampling of some of the fuel tank problems you may encounter if your fuel tanks are
not cleaned.

Damaging excess water. If water makes up just a half a percent of the tanks capacity and it can cause
ethanol & water to separate and fall to the bottom. This is called phase separation and its a real headache.
With less ethanol in your gas, it drops the octane rating by as much as three numbers, which can cause
pinging. Whats worse, if the water & ethanol phase reaches your fuel inlet, you can pump it into a
customers car and cause seriousand costlyengine problems.
Mucus-like sediment. Since ethanol is both a cleaning solvent and absorbent, water and dirt in the tank
will cling to it and make their way into your fuel tanks. You can only hope your filters will catch most of it.
Plus, sediment sitting at the bottom of your tanks can cause inaccurate tank gauge readings. Why pay for
sediment to take up fuel space?

Debris damages leak detectors. Dirty fuel can also cost you when debris passes through your leak
detectors. This can severely affect leak detectors performance over time- which means they have to be
replaced more often. Its just another expense you dont need.

Fuel altering microbes. Water, sludge and sediment at the bottom of tanks are an ideal breeding ground
for bacteria and fungi. They excrete waste, starting a bio-deterioration process that chemically alters fuel.
Every time you fill your tanks, you risk contaminating your investment, without even knowing it. If you dont
get rid of microbes, the problem will only get worse.

A little water creates a lot of problems. In a 10% ethanol blend, it takes as little as 18 gallons of water
in a 6,000 gallon tank to cause phase separation. In a 2% blend, only 3.6 gallons. Our tank cleaning process
removes excess water which drastically reduces the risk of damaging phase separation.

Our powerful fuel tank cleaning process will help service station operators lose the worry, save money
& avoid problems.
ATS Environmentals experts make the tank cleaning process easy, effective & hassle free. Heres what you can
expect

Well remove the gunk, without removing any fuel. Our system uses a 50 snake type hose that
travels to the bottom of your tanks and removes all the damaging water-alcohol mixes, microbial growths,
hydrocarbon emulsion and more- leaving only clean fuel for you to sell.
A portable & fast solution. Well schedule a time that works for you, come to your place and do our
thing. Cleaning time depends on the amount of contaminants and water in your tank- but were usually
finished in a matter of hours.

No down time for your station. We can do our cleaning while your station is in full operation. You wont
lose a single sale.

An affordable way to go. You can clean all your tanks for less than the cost of repairing just one
customers damaged car.

Change your filters every other month, instead of every week. A cleaner tank means cleaner fuel.
so youll use far fewer filters and save time, labor and money in the process.

Save your leak detectors, too. Clean fuel will increase your leak detectors life- saving you up to $400
each in replacement costs.

Storage Tank Testing and Inspection Programmes

Replacing underground fuel storage tank is an expensive business not just in completing the ground works but also
in loss of revenue through site closures. Conversely a tank failure and contamination of a watercourse with fuel
leads to environmental damage that is unacceptable to any responsible organization.
The use of additives in fuel to minimize the environmental impact of lead has proven to accelerate tank corrosion
leading to uncertainty over tank life.
This results from:

External Corrosion
Internal Corrosion

Dipstick Erosion

Fabrication Defects

Microbial influenced corrosion

As a result many organizations have implemented tank testing and inspection programmes as a means of assuring
the life expectancy of any tank and having the ability to asses the condition of their storage facilities.
LCM Environmentals dedicated Tank Cleaning, Maintenance and Inspection Teams have tested thousands of storage
tanks throughout the UK. Using our advanced equipment and our teams experience we are able to carry out Tank
test using non-destructive testing (NDT) of wall thickness with all reports being signed off by site supervisors and
handed to our clients along with recommendations on how to improve the condition of the tanks.