Curtis Bailey (left) and Roy Mundey III at a Carroll Motor Fuels station in Maryland. Brad’s Fuel Filtering works for every major oil company in the area.

Brad Bettencourt, President and owner of Brad’s Fuel Filtering Inc., started his business in 2014.

Most of us don’t think too much about the fuel we pump into our gas tanks. We might look at the price and glance at the octane rating, but beyond that, we just don’t worry about it. One of the reasons we don’t have to worry is because of people like Brad Bettencourt. Brad thinks about fuel a lot.

Brad, the President and owner of Baltimore-based Brad’s Fuel Filtering Inc., has spent 32 years in the business, and four years in charge of his own company. He knows all the problems that can happen to fuel when it’s stored and how to solve them.

“The fuel you buy now is different from what you bought just 10 years ago,” Brad says. “Fuel is like many other products—it has a shelf life. After 30 days to six weeks, it starts to break down. Whether diesel, oil or gasoline, it doesn’t matter—all of them will have problems.”

Brad’s Fuel Filtering solves those problems with a fleet of four trucks fitted with specialized equipment to draw the fuel out of the storage tank, filter it and return it to the tank as good as new. It’s a necessity not just for everyday cars and trucks, but also for construction equipment, vehicle fleets and generators.

Bah Humbugs!

“All storage tanks are vented to the air,” Brad says. “So they bring in outside contaminants like air, which has moisture in it, particulate contamination, bacteria and spores. Because the fuel is exposed to oxygen, in the case of oil or diesel, it will create what we call humbugs, which are bacteria,” he explains. “These can be very harmful. Bacterial waste is acidic, causing pitting and damage to the metal in the tank. When the bacteria die, the carcasses they leave behind are like coffee grounds.” Fuel used to have a higher sulfur content, which acted as a natural antibiotic to keep the bacteria at bay. “The sulfur content of diesel has decreased from 500 parts per million (ppm) to 15 ppm today due to stricter environmental regulations,” Brad notes. “Diesel fuel today also goes through a process called hydrotreating, which removes sulfur. But all the moisture that goes in during the process doesn’t come out, leaving the fuel very sensitive to water.”

To treat oil and diesel fuel, Brad’s trucks use a water separator to pull the water out. The fuel is then treated with a biocide to kill bacteria and prevent more from forming. Finally, the fuel is run through a filtering vessel with a 5-micron filter to remove bacterial carcasses and return it to the storage tank with zero loss of product.

Gasoline in a storage tank can develop an entirely different set of problems, mostly because of the government-mandated ethanol content of 10 percent all gasoline has now, Brad says.

“Adding ethanol makes the gasoline completely unstable,” Brad says. “If there’s any water at the bottom of a tank, which there almost always is, you get something called phase separation. The water at the bottom pulls the ethanol down out of the gasoline. Our trucks can remove the phase separation. We get rid of the water and add ethanol back into the mix, as well as an octane booster to make sure the fuel stays in spec. When ethanol separates from gasoline, you lose approximately two points of octane and suddenly your super unleaded isn’t so super. Like diesel, we do this with no loss of product.”

Keeping Things Moving

The average corner gas station has storage tanks that hold 10,000 gallons, Brad says. It takes his trucks about two to three hours to filter that much fuel, whether it’s diesel or gasoline.

Those corner gas stations are a part of Brad’s business, but they’re by no means all of it. In addition to convenience stores and gas stations—like the 400 Carroll Fuel stations he services in the Baltimore area—Brad’s Fuel Filtering has a number of clients whose names don’t immediately conjure up thoughts of fuel, such as CenturyLink, AT&T and Verizon.

“We maintain about 1,400 different Verizon sites,” Brad says. “We filter the fuel for the backup generators in their cell towers.”

Another big part of his customer base is construction companies and property management companies with backup generators, such as Whiting-Turner and Clark Construction Group, both in the Washington, D.C., area. “Everywhere you go in Washington, D.C., there’s a building spree, and the construction companies all need good fuel,” he says. Storage tanks for emergency generators make up a large portion of Brad’s business. Due to the critical nature of their life-saving work, hospitals can’t afford to lose power, and 70 hospitals in the Mid-Atlantic call on Brad to make sure their generator fuel is always ready in case it’s needed. He also maintains the fuel for vital government agencies, including the Pentagon and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as the 500,000-gallon storage tanks at the Central Intelligence Agency and the 1.1 million gallons of fuel at the National Security Agency.

Brad’s Fuel Filtering also just won a large multiyear contract with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to service all PennDOT and Pennsylvania Turnpike tanks. “I just told someone this morning that if you didn’t know me, you’d be impressed,” Brad jokes. “We don’t advertise, because we’re specialized. If you aren’t storing fuel, you don’t have any use for our services. We do a lot of direct marketing targeted specifically to the people who need us, to the registered owners of fuel tanks. For people who do need us, the process sells itself.”

“The fuel you buy now is different from what you bought just 10 years ago. Fuel is like many other products—it has a shelf life. After 30 days to six weeks, it starts to break down. Whether diesel, oil or gasoline, it doesn’t matter—all of them will have problems.” Brad Bettencourt, President and Owner, Brad’s Fuel Filtering Inc.

Selling Itself

The value of fuel filtering is clear for both operational efficiency and cost savings, Brad says. Mission-critical systems in a hospital, data center, wireless provider or government agency could fail if bad fuel keeps boilers and generators from running. Fleets of vehicles could face high maintenance costs in replacing ruined engine parts, and gas stations will lose customers if there’s no gas to sell them.

“If you pay $2.50 per gallon for your fuel and you’ve got a 10,000-gallon tank, that’s $25,000 in investment,” Brad says. “We’re cleaning it for $900, so it just makes good sense. We also offer a free fuel test to see if your fuel needs cleaning. We are the only fuel-filtering company that doesn’t own a vacuum truck, nor are we in the fuel resale business. I’ve always thought it is a conflict of interest to provide both a fuel cleaning service and a disposal service. People hire us to save fuel, not sell it.”

Turning the Key

Brad started Brad’s Fuel Filtering in 2014, but he’s been in the business since 1986. He spent 25 years at his first fuel-filtering job as general manager, but after the original owner sold his interest in the company, the new owner decided to put his son in charge instead. Brad went to another company in 2010, working there for three and a half years before realizing he should be his own boss.

“This business is like most businesses—it’s all about relationships,” Brad says. “The customers and clients I worked with in my old jobs knew me, and they knew they could trust me. When I went out on my own, they wanted to come with me. I’ve always been a very honest guy, and I try to stay the lowest firm in town in terms of price. There’s no point in overcharging and then come to find out the company is out of business a year later. That’s why I actually call our clients partners—because without them we don’t exist.”

It was Brad’s experience and base of loyal partners that got his business off the ground—assets that convinced M&T Bank to loan him $100,000 to get started, though he still had to match that amount with the only funds he had­—credit cards. The cost of a single truck and filtering equipment begins at $110,000 and goes up sharply. Once he had his first truck, the business his partners promised began to appear.

“We always provide fair pricing, reliable service and expert experience,” Brad says. “You can’t put a price on getting these things done right. We’ve perfected our process over the years and learned to make equipment that’s adaptable to the way fuel is made. People like the fact that when we say we’re going to be somewhere, we’re there. And, our work is fully warranted and guaranteed.”

From working by himself with a single truck, Brad has expanded his business to four fully equipped trucks and nine employees. In the meantime, he’s been focusing on paying down the loans needed to start Brad’s Fuel Filtering and keeping his business at the right size for his goals. Within the next year, all his debt will be gone and all his trucks will be paid off.

“I’m not planning to retire anytime soon,” Brad says. “This is something I really care about and really enjoy doing. We’re constantly taking care of problems for customers and solving their fuel-related issues. It makes me feel good when I can solve someone’s problem for them.”