The overall cleanliness of diesel fuel is created by several factors, low quality fuel purchased, poor storage and housekeeping practices is a big problem that all industries in particular transport and power generation have to deal with. The fuel cleanliness issues start at the refinery. There the fuel output filtration is typically between 50 and 80 micron. Particles smaller than this are unfiltered and remain in the fuel during its life. The contamination in the fuel only rises when it is taken from the refinery, as it will go through several more container transfers before reaching the final cars, boats, tankers, storage tanks or barrels. These transfers all contribute to dirt and water accumulation. This causes issues for the end user, who will be oblivious to the issues as they are non visible. Only will an end user realise they have issues when assets return poor running performance.

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Much of the asset performance issues is related to micron size of the contamination and the water accumulating in fuel as it reaches pumps and injectors. Assets that use injector systems, typically around a decade ago, their maximum diesel fuel system pressures rarely exceeded 3000 psi, however with today's advanced systems this can be as high as 30,000 psi. To generate these higher pressures, lower micron sized injector orifices and tighter tolerances in delivery equipment coupled with contaminated fuel can cause misfires, blockages & engine stoppages. Most engine fuel filters are nominal 15 or 10 micron with low efficiencies to allow fuel flow through to the engine. The most damaging particle size by volume is 5-10 microns. Thus particles that are now in similar size to the injector bores are making their way to combustion chambers unchallenged. This over time will cause a build up of contamination, leading to running issues.

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Laboratory analysis revealed that particles in the 5 to 10 micron sizes were actually the most abrasive size group and were the cause of shortened component life. It turned out the 7 micron particle was the perfect fit between high tolerance clearances and would actually grind away at inner metal surfaces, causing accelerated wear resulting in a drop in delivery pressures and causing servo value orifice erosion. A particle of contamination, is not typically spherical nor smooth, it will be of haphazard shape and aggressive in nature, causing wear as it contacts inner surfaces.

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Water ingress to storage tanks is a major problem, particularly for companies who have to store large amounts of fuel for standby for back-up generator systems for example. Diesel is hygroscopic, which means the fuel will attract and hold onto water often caused by condensation at a molecular level by its nature. Water is created by condensation through temperature changes, also when the level in the storage drops due to asset demand, it draws in unfiltered air, which contains moisture also. Particularly with older mild steel storage tanks these degrade forming rust particles, this forms within the void between the level of fuel and the tanks. This rusts falls away and causes sediment within the fuel. This is in a tank of age, is a problem. Especially if any maintenance on the tank is carried out, vibration through these activities often occurs. Displacing the rust particles from tank internals into the fuel. These will be particularly damaging to systems. Please give us a call within your issues, we will have a solution for you.

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Other sources of water ingress are through poorly maintained manhole access points, these can fill with water and seepage can occur through filler caps, breather points and tank lids and faulty seals.

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Faulty tanks, cracked pipe work can all contribute to contamination problems within storage tanks.