The generator gets tested every month. The fuel in its tank usually doesn't. Clean & Capable puts an Acterra technician on your tank on a schedule — inspect, sample, test — and treats, polishes or replaces only what the evidence calls for.
For hospitals, data centers, telecom, emergency services and every site whose plan depends on stored diesel.
of a standby tank is burned by monthly exercise in a year. The rest of the fuel just waits.
is how long engine makers say stored diesel keeps. The 1½–2 years many owners remember is a code appendix retired in 2002.
NFPA 110 has called for a fuel-quality test at least annually since its 2010 edition.
biodiesel can be blended into ordinary diesel with no label on the delivery ticket.
Diesel starts changing the day it's delivered. Today's ultra-low-sulfur fuel and biodiesel blends keep for less time than the fuel the old storage rules were written for — and nothing in a monthly generator test tells you what's happening at the bottom of the tank.
Fuel reacts with air over time, forming gums and sediment that load filters and injectors.
Condensation and leaky fittings put water in the tank. It sinks to the bottom, where the fuel pickup is.
Bacteria and fungi grow where fuel meets water. Treat them without polishing after, and the dead growth becomes the particulate that plugs a filter mid-outage.
The arithmetic no standby site can win: codes size the tank for days of full-load run time and say keep it full — while monthly exercise turns over a sliver of it a year. The fuel has to be maintained in place or cycled out. That takes a program, not a project.
Every visit starts with the equipment and the evidence. What we find decides what we do — maintain the fuel in place, or cycle it out. The sample decides, never the calendar alone.
Both programs include the equipment inspection, the field tests and the report on every visit. The difference is how often we come — and how often the fuel goes to the lab.
For most standby generator sites.
For sites with a 96-hour plan or no tolerance for downtime — hospitals, data centers, telecom, 911.
One annual program fee per tank. Treatment, polishing and repairs are priced by event — only when the sample or the inspection calls for it — and quoted before any work starts. A full ASTM D975 specification certificate is available when an insurer, surveyor or large fill needs one.
Not a lab printout in an inbox — a plain-English report of what we found, what we did and why.
The best time to find out what's in your tank is before the outage. The second best is before the next inspection.
Clean & Capable is how a fuel-systems company takes fuel quality off your plate — one contract, one phone number, one report.
Fuel systems, aboveground and belowground — install, inspect, repair and rebuild.
Acterra has supported the Fuels RMMR program on military installations since 2013.
Covered by our technicians: IA · AL · TX · WY · GA · CO.
When the power goes out, the fuel in your tank is the plan. We keep it clean and capable.
Score your own tank — and get the checklist to keep.
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