The hackaday article from 2015 mentiones the L6234 which is a quite easy to use driver chip for (small) BLDC motors.
You can also have a look into "SimonK".
It's firmware for an ATMEGA8 and is used in some "ESC" (Electronic Speed Controllers).
These ESC's are standard building blocks in remote controlled gadgets, so the only soldering you'll have to do is to add a programming connector for the on-board microcontroller.
Normally an ESC won't run so slow, but you can of course use the hardware of one, and re program the uC.
These things start at around EUR10 or so on Aliexpress, but it's difficult to predict which uC will be on it.
Ali also has BLDC controllers with discrete TO220 mosfets, and no onboard controller, but some 0.1" header pins to control the bridge, so add a uC.
Also, Youtuber "GreatScot" has some very simple BLDC controllers build and documented, complete with "arduino" code that may be worth watching. Just close your eyes when he starts soldering, or smile loudly if you think your own soldering skills are better than his

Also: lots of pumps are made from plastic, which may react badly to your fuel.