Powers Introduces Diesel Polishing Service 

When back-up generators fail, it's often due to dirty diesel. 

A cost-effective solution? Fuel Polishing.

It was, says Al Powers, an epiphany moment. Powers, president of Powers Generator Service, a full-service generator dealer in Swanzey, New Hampshire, was working with a customer. "His fuel tank," recalls Powers, "was full of contaminated diesel. It was dirty - basically unusable. If he used it for his generator there was no telling what would happen. It would not have been good." Powers, knowing what it would cost to remove the contaminated diesel, dispose of it and refill the tank, thought for a moment. A few days earlier, he'd read about a unique diesel-cleaning technique called fuel polishing. "It was described as 'diesel dialysis' - a real life-saving measure for generators." He'd never seen it done, but the story was compelling.

"Down South, as Hurricane Katrina came in, a lot of businesses thought they were in pretty good shape - at least when it came to their ability to get back-up power. They'd been doing weekly tests on their generators, and everything looked fine. But then the storm forced extended run times and it was clear they were in trouble."

The problem, says Powers, was simple yet devastating. As old diesel fuel sat stagnant and unused, waiting for an emergency, sludge, including a potent mix of water, rust, bacteria, and dirt, had accumulated at the bottom of the tanks. "It happens all the time when fuel isn't managed correctly. Diesel degrades over time, and sludge is the natural result. Usually no one notices until it's too late. When Katrina hit", says Powers, "the generators turned on, as expected. But then they ran and ran. Eventually they had to refill with more diesel, and the refilling process stirred everything up. All that junk was suddenly in suspension and sucked into the fuel filters. The generators clogged and started failing right away."

"Following Katrina", says Powers, "many businesses, eager to avoid similar generator breakdowns in the future, turned to fuel polishing. The process is simple: The fuel tank in question is pretreated with a high-quality additive that breaks up any existing sludge. A 200-pound high-pressure pump is maneuvered into position with a dolly and attached to the tank. Contaminated fuel is pulled from the bottom of the tank, processed through a series of high-tech filters, and then returned to the top of the tank cleaned, polished, and ready for use. It's an easy way to filter out contaminated fuel and restore it to new or nearly new condition," explains Powers. "It increases the life of the diesel you already own indefinitely. You end up with the same fuel you started with, only it's clean, and if you do it regularly you prevent the build-up of sediment and water at the bottom of the tank. You save all the money you would have spent on pumping the tank out, shipping the fuel to a toxic waste facility, and then refilling with new diesel at $4 or more per gallon."

A New Service

Back to that customer. Powers, hoping to save his client a bundle, did a little research. "I got online to see if there was someone who could come in and polish his fuel. I wasn't set up for it, but I figured someone else was." What he found - or didn't find - was telling. "There was no one doing it locally, or even in the region," recalls Powers. "There may be people out there, but they're not easy to locate."

With 15 employees in two offices - one in Swanzey and another in nearby Bow - Powers says his business is right where it needs to be. For more than a decade they've had all the work they could handle doing generator sales, installations, and servicing. Still, Powers knows an opportunity when he sees one. "People need this service," says Powers, who will add fuel polishing to the company's services beginning this winter. "Mission-critical businesses and municipalities - especially police stations, fire stations, nursing homes, hospitals - these places need reliable power, so they absolutely must have reliable long-term fuel storage. They can't have their generators dying on them during an emergency. I think fuel polishing is the solution. And in terms of my business, it's a wide open niche."

"Until now", says Powers, "many businesses have coped with the problem of long-term diesel storage by putting just enough fuel in their storage tanks to see them through a month or two of occasional emergency use. It's a labor-intensive approach, requiring constant attention to fuel levels to ensure tanks don't run dry. Others treat their tanks with chemical biocides that temporarily stunt microbial growth but fail to address the underlying problem of natural diesel breakdown." Neither approach, says Powers, is convenient. And neither makes sense. "It's a lot simpler to just top off the tank and forget about it, knowing everything's taken care of. I'm convinced that the fuel is the single most overlooked aspect of generator maintenance. If you do it regularly, you never have to worry again."

When Failure's Not an Option

With winter on its way, and with it the real potential for heavy snows and accompanying outages, Powers predicts high demand for his fuel polishing service. "It's an easy way to ensure the reliability of critical applications," he says. "When a business spends fifty or a hundred thousand dollars because their back-up needs are so important, fuel polishing is a very prudent investment." The process, notes Powers, reduces the need for filter changes, improves efficiency, and can cost less than $1 per gallon from start to finish. "It's quick and simple, and it's also affordable. Especially when you consider the alternative."

For More information…

Contact Powers Generator Service today by calling toll-free (800) 853-7202 or by filling in the form below.