Biofuel fuel in tank?? What is this?

PhilDavid

Does anyone know what this stuff possibly could be that I purged out of my burner after work today?
Came home to a cold shower a found the burner out. I’m a licensed and well seasoned oil tech so I got into it and when I purged the burner this dirty yellow oil mixed with red #2 came out. 

The boiler and burner was serviced by me 2 weeks ago with new spin on filter pump strainer and nozzle. Filter had a little sludge but a clean strainer and no sign of that mystery stuff. 

It’s an old Carlin 99FRD with tigerloop. Funny the oil in the tiger loop looks a little cloudy but consistent and red…ish.

Here’s the thing. I just had my 275gal tank filled with 180gals 6 days ago with a bottle of Hot Shot added just before like usual. 

Heat is definitely not on yet but I have an indirect. We were gone two days after the fill up for two days so not much oil burned. 

Vent cap and fill cap on tight. 

Would biofuel take days to settle to the bottom? 

The tank is old with the side not bottom tap. 

I’ll have at it again in the morning. Curious to see how much of this stuff is in the tank and what the oil company says.
Will update tomorrow  

SuperTech

I haven't seen that before but with the way the oil separated from it my guess is water. It's a good idea to try to keep the tank from getting too low in the summer to avoid condensation. Is the tank indoors? Overhead oil line?

PhilDavid

Ya the tank is inside. The oil line is at the floor about 8ft long. 

I’ve had to drain water from tanks before and it always looked a dark color. 

Gonna try and draw off as much as I can from the tank

HVACNUT

Yeah that's water. I bet before it separated it looked like strawberry Quick. Mmmmm.

STEVEusaPA

Yup, water. I just went thru this with a customer and an underground tank.
If it's gravity flow (and no OSV), I'd draw it off at the Tiger Loop until it's clear. Then I'd replace filter, strainer, nozzle, drain the flex lines & do a full combustion test.
Then I'd treat each tank for a whole season and check the filter next summer. Fill the tank when the heating season is over.
You could've also had a bad load.

You shouldn't have to purge it with a Tiger Loop. But the obvious problem is the burner won't burn water.

EBEBRATT-Ed

@PhilDavid

Get some of that water testing paste at you oil burner supply house and check your sample. Try and find out how water could get in the tank...that looks like a lot to get from condensation.

Talk with your oil supplier

Robert O'Brien

Once properly blended, biodiesel doesn't separate from #2

PhilDavid

Appreciate the feedback.
Yes it does look like strawberry quick in the tigerloop. 

Right from the tank I removed about 3 gals of this stuff. Replaced nozzle strainer and filter. And cleared the tigerloop and lines. It fired up so I let it run until the indirect was satisfied (so wife could shower) but then turned it off. I’m going to fire it back up after work and do a combustion test. 

Definitely going to call the supplier. It just doesn’t seem right. 

SuperTech

STEVEusaPA said:

Yup, water. I just went thru this with a customer and an underground tank. If it's gravity flow (and no OSV), I'd draw it off at the Tiger Loop until it's clear. Then I'd replace filter, strainer, nozzle, drain the flex lines & do a full combustion test. Then I'd treat each tank for a whole season and check the filter next summer. Fill the tank when the heating season is over. You could've also had a bad load. You shouldn't have to purge it with a Tiger Loop. But the obvious problem is the burner won't burn water.

I knew when I checked back on this thread that @STEVEusaPA would know exactly what it was and what to do about it.  I'm glad my guess was correct. Thankfully I don't come across this often,  but my boss came across a contaminated tank last winter and described what he drained out as yellow looking just like in the original post.