Diesel in Water tank

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Moodymoon01

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I put diesel in the water tank by mistake !!

Yes, I know, what a prat etc., and I've been kicking myself ever since.

Tried flushing it out loads of times with detergent and steriliser but still a bit remains after each flush. Asked a local boat merchant who was going to take the tanks out and steam clean but tanks almost impossible to get out.

Anyone else got any ideas on how to clean out the last remains of diesel?
 
Hi, pretty new at this boating thing. But having given your little problem some thought have you tried steralising fluid? You know, the stuff you soak babies bottles in. Obviously I would flush the tank a couple of times with more detergent first. Then fill the tank to near capacity and add the reccommended quantity of sterilising fluid this should remove the remainder.
 
Thanks Brendan, some very useful stuff.

One of them recommends using a gallon of Vodka to help clean the tank !!

Trouble is, I would probably want to drink it !!

/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
A gallon of vodka would go a long way towards removing the taste of the water! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Try and get some industrial alcohol, not every one has access to it, but if you know of the right contacts working in labs etc, a much cheaper option
 
a long shot perhaps, but we were researching (i.e. some 16yr old PhDs were being paid to research) the matter of decontaminating disused underground fuel tanks. Some info from these people looked promising.

http://www.weidner-cleaning.com/Englisch/biological_watertreatment.htm

Curses, that's the second time a URL link won't post with the webpage title. Any suggestions why the new laptop won't play properly please ?

What I was going to suggest was that a suitable biological agent left in the full tank would convert residual hydrocarbons to something more interesting and less smelly, which could then be removed by plain water flushing.

I am with the acetyl and aromatics group tomorrow, so will ask the techies if there's a UK product available.
 
I did a lot of work when doing my PhD on land decontamination of toxic materials. Problem is biological agents take a long time to break down such substances, even in ideal conditions. It would work with the right combination, but not in time frames you'd want for tank cleaning in a boat.

16 year old PhD's? They must be pretty advanced? Where are they based?
 
For the minute amounts of diesel left in a tank and pipe system drained and then refilled with (warm) water, a non-hydrocarbon solvent, and an emulsifier, couldn't a few hungry enzymes deal with the traces in say 24 hrs ? Are we onto a fortune here ?

An element of irony on the age of our research bods and boddesses; the youngest ones look 16 but must be all of 20.
 
The bugs have to be trained to want to eat the stuff you want to get rid of, and be selected and raised on that material to be efficient. Then given the right combination of lack of otherwise nice nutrients to eat, but not enough they ignore the diesel.

Not the simplest task to take a live culture and persuade it in a whole tank that the thin coating on the wall is all they want to eat, and as they have no motibility, you'd have to find some way to have the bacteria in concentration against the walls, not in suspension in the tank etc etc

No easy money here to be had that I can think of;
 
Commiserations

Depends how much. I had a flood on my boat this year and my tank got contaminated with bilge water - basically dilute diesel. I pumped it through a few times with a bit of water purifier powder in the tank, emptied it one last time, replaced all the pipework with new, then dangled some fuller's earth in the empty tank for a month. Eventually the contaminated taste disappeared. I wouldn't recommend any sort of hydrocarbon solution - the ability of the human tongue to detect contamination is AMAZING... down in the 1 in a few million parts, I reckon. Oh I changed the filter under the sink too. It's all right now but the water (in a big galvy tank) used to be beautiful. It'll take years to get back to that state.
 
Re: Commiserations

New tank means destroying inside of boat! /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gifOnly to be done when completely desperate.
 
Re: A method that worked 100%

Taken from a previous posting I made when someone else made the same mistake....
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I put some diesel in my water tank in my last boat. My actions were to overfill the water tank to push the floating diesel out, followed by bucket loads of detergent and some fairly violent wave jumping to slosh it all around in the hope it would clear the remnants, but all to no avail.

In the end I used Berthon, Lymington where I kept the boat at the time, and they said leave the problem with us. I did, and a week later there was no trace whatsoever and the water was as sweet as anything.

When I asked what they used, their works manager (Dave Street) said 'don't ask, you wouldn't like to know!' I found out it was some dreadful combination of chemicals which simply ate every bit of diesel leaving the tank, pipes and fittings perfect. But it worked.

Dave told me I wasn't the first, nor would I be the last. He had dealt with far worse diesel contamination then mine, always with the same result - no problem.

He still won't tell me what they used....
 
Re: A method that worked 100%

until he tells us what he used, we are non the wiser, and most techniques suggested here which involved chemistry of solvents to diesel will work.
 
Someone did the same to Tigger's tank this summer. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif The same someone sorted the problem out /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif.

He emptied the tanks and removed any visible residues of diesel. He then dissolved some dishwasher detergent in very hot water and poured this into the tanks, taking care to flush the piping as well. He let the liquid sit for a while ( a couple of days). He then repeated the whole procedure again, twice I think. This cleared up the bad taste. We now have very clean tanks!!

Good luck and don't give up, it can be done.
 
Maybe running the water through a (inline) carbon filter would remove the taint?

Also perhaps replacing the pipework to and from tank (if accessible) would also help?
 
A lot of the chemicals will taint the water too, and take as much flushing out! Flush as mentioned, replace plastice pipe from filler to tank and pour white wine vinegar into the tank. About 1/2-1ltre per 1000litres of water. The vinegar will help get rid of the taint in the water until back to normal!
 
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