Filtration impoves engine efficiency to cut costs
Parker Racor’s DFBO fuel filtration system.
In an increasingly competitive global market, vessel owners and managers are under growing pressure both to protect operating margins through cost efficiencies and to comply with ever tougher environmental legislation.
Running and maintaining diesel engines represents a significant proportion of overall operating costs and, with rising fuel prices and more rigorous emissions regulations, it seems certain that these costs will continue to grow. Parker Hannifin’s Racor Filter Division Europe maintains that fuel quality in terms of dirt content and water contamination has been getting worse over recent years with the introduction of lower sulphur fuels and bio diesel blends, which have put engines at greater risk.
In part, however, these risks can be mitigated through the use of effective fuel filtration systems, designed to remove water and dirt. Parker Racor’s Turbine, FBO and DFBO provide high levels of fuel filtration and water separation, protecting the injection system from damage whilst allowing up to a claimed 10 times increase in service life when compared with competing solutions.
Some operators have gone further and tried to switch wholly to biofuels when running vessels, through the use of 100% biodiesel, derived from vegetable oils or biomass. However, these fuels have been shown to pose a number of specific problems to marine engines and filters, and should only be used by operators who use vessels constantly with little or no stand-by time for the fuel to degrade.
Perhaps most importantly, these fuels typically contain a relatively high level of particulate matter, especially in the damaging 10 to 20µm particle size range, and are chemically and thermally unstable, which can lead to particulate contamination, agglomerates, varnishes and oxides in the fuel tanks of vessels, all of which can contaminate the fuel flowing through the lines to the injectors, increasing maintenance requirements and reducing the service life of components.
Biodiesel can also have a significant effect on the cold filter plugging point (CFPP) of fuel, which can lead to reduced engine performance, and in the worst instance, a complete break down, as wax crystals form and clog fuel lines and filters.
However, while the production and use of biodiesel introduces many challenges, it also provides a number of benefits in addition to its environmental credentials, including lower taxation and the ability to use or sell the spent rape seed used in its production as cattle feed. With effective filtration, the fuel can be used in exactly the same way as mineral diesel, and is capable of maintaining the same performance levels.
Effective filtration does, however, depend on a number of technical innovations. For example, modern filters for bio fuels incorporate features such as special seal materials, improved filter media and positive temperature coefficient (PTC) heaters, which allow each filter to warm the fuel before filtering it, tackling the potential problems of operating in low ambient temperature conditions, such as coagulation.
Due to the ability of these filters to warm the fuel before filtering, and the fine levels of filtration of which they are capable, the cleanliness of the fuel flowing through to the injectors and engine can be increased by a factor of up to 100. This translates to considerably longer service life for engine components, reduced maintenance requirements, and ultimately lower costs.
One other area of environmental concern is secondary exhaust emissions from the crankcase. These crankcase emissions can be eliminated using the latest super high efficiency 10 grade media closed crankcase ventilation (CCV) systems. Often representing one third of overall engine emissions, crankcase gas emissions can be returned to the air intake with a system such as Parker’s CCV12000. Capable of dealing with 2,000 hp engines with a single unit, the solution offers a claimed 93% efficiency from a retrofitable media solution.
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