Removing dye from red/blue taxfree diesel.

[rickyrick]

Hi removing the dye from taxfree diesel in these times of gas price rises could be a potentially big moneymaker if done on an industrial scale.
Removing the dye should be a pretty simple process running it through vacuum filtration using silica or activated carbon.
Like this.
now my questin would be would this be feasible on an industrial level?Also have heard of using acids to chemically bleach the diesel.Which would be more feasible?
And last and probably the biggest problem is goverments have been putting markers into these diesel that activate when some kind of reagent is added and are used by customs/taxmen.
So if anyone has any insight,ideas for how a feasible industrial scale operation would look like you can comment here.

 

[G.Patton]

Granular activated carbon (BGAC) which is carbon-based is a suitable adsorbent.
Tartrazine is a kind of die manufactured by the Morgan Chemical Company; Other reagents that can be used include phosphoric acid (H3PO4) and Dilute Hydrochloric Acid (HCL) and Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH). Therefore, adding the above solutions would cause de-colorization of the red dye from the diesel

 

[rickyrick]

Thank you for the input.It is most valuable.after decolorization with the above solutions do the layers of fuel and solution separate or do they need to be extracted with some solvent?

 

[G.Patton]

You have to filter it with vacuum via cotton or paper filter. Try and tell here what is the best for.

 

[Jamroz]

a friend of mine works at a refinery and he told me that a new dye(SUDAN) is being added to fuel and it's hard to get rid of the color.I have such fuel, I can try to discolor just tell you how

 

[rickyrick]

Yes i heard.They have markers in the fuel too that reacts with drop of reagent even when discolored.If your friend could provide as much info as possible that would be awesome.

 

[woohoo]

Will you get any profit from large scale diesel purification?
I mean, tax free diesel is about $0.5 cheaper than normal fuel, is it worth it?
And fines is high for that felony. I've heard about $1000 per one fuel tank.

 

[CryoThio]

That's a very good point. It's only worth it for huge scale, like 20k 50k gallons a day sort of sales. And that is gotta to be noticeable, as one would have to transport and process this diesel to remove the dye, which would need factory like settings at that scale.

Not really worth it imo

 

[The-Hive]

a wise man once said.........cat litter