BLOG: Power Perspectives

[#1]

Unfortunately, a general consensus about diesel fuel being "good for life" is a common idea, but this belief is a myth. Many have found this out the hard way, especially in electric power generation. In order to avoid untimely shutdowns, it is imperative that a systematic approach be in place to avoid contaminated fuel.

With today's fuel injection systems operating at such high pressures, utilizing extremely fine tolerances, the days of poor contamination control are over. Today's injectors are extremely vulnerable, subject to wear and premature failure as diesel fuel ages and is not maintained properly.

Poor fuel maintenance can also lead to clogging and blockage of fuel filters. This can slow or even stop the flow of fuel, leading to engine starvation, injector damage, poor performance, and ultimately engine shutdown.

Unlike on-highway trucks and off-road machinery that consume fuel relatively quickly, diesel gensets store large amounts of fuel for extended periods. Stored diesel fuel can present symptoms of fuel degradation in as little as six months. In some applications, the genset will see very little use, allowing the fuel to age. This increases the formation of sediments and bacteria in the fuel. In these cases especially, it is critical that this energy source be maintained.

A few things to consider when maintaining the integrity of your diesel fuel supply:

• Have fuel samples been taken from three locations (bottom, middle, top) of tank, and evaluated to properly identify fuel quality?
  
  
• Have bacterial and fungal growth inhibitors been added to help combat the effects of fuel being stored for extended periods?
  
  
• Does the fuel supply have its own filtration? Does it have the ability to filter down to 0.5 microns under pressure, as well as a fuel/ water seperator to aid in the effort to ensure clean fuel delivery?
  
  
• Has there been a thorough inspection of the fuel tank, including interior video inspection, complete equipment inspection (connections, gauges, monitoring devices) as well as identifying non-compliance issues?
  
  
• Are proper contamination control precautions being taken when replenishing fuel supply? It is important to ensure that the fuel that is received is from a reputable source, who also takes the proper procautions to ensure quality fuel delivery.
  
  

Utilizing these maintenance measures will contribute to the longevity and performace of your investment. A failure due to neglect should not be an option, and is easy to avoid if the proper procedures are put into place.

Does your facility / company have documented fuel quality procedures? Additional tips I did not mention? Please post below.

[#2]

Till 2005 i was part of diesel engine manafacturers team engaged in developing Fuel Injection system to meet emission norms of india and worked very closely with Boach india.first set of injectors developed by Boach were encaraging but failed to repet (were worse then the first set) and boach refused to co-operate with our team.so my question is how trust worthy these fuel injectors with cutting edge techonology.i was a cat application engineer for six years

[#3]

Good blog post.

We often see customers with poor fuel quality.  We perform fuel polisihing services for our customers who's fuel is bad.

Sludge and sediment in the bottom of the tank, water in the fuel are the most common.

We once had customer with high sulphur in their tank (carry over from when high sulphur was sold).  No way to filter that!

[#4]

Total Power has been servicing clients in mining, fishing (or other uses for marine vessels), as well as factories with gensets.  Typically fuel contains little water and contaminants leaving the refinery but either through bad storage conditions ( hot and humid, or leaking tanks) or through adulteration on the way to the facility (maybe not in the US but definately outside of the US.  Our product is multi-faceted non petrolium based fuel additive (i know i know bad reputation).  We confront continious  questions in how we're different and it's through table top demonstrations that we show that we can disperse water (all petrolium based additives can't because as you know water and oil don't mix) which not only helps in reducing/eliminating stratification but removes the habitat for organisms to grow, this way you don't have to build slude or sediment, We oxygenate fuel in order to reduce emissions and improve on time combustion, and we incorporate gentle detergency.  This is not a flush or a polishing which would require the replacement of tanks, or downtime in equipment.  It is a gradual process that disolves and will allow the BTU's from the seperated fuel to be used in a possitive way.  We generally see 3-6% fuel savings at a cost of approximately 4cents per gallon treated.

We are recognized as a viable solution by Caterpillar of Peru and Chile (FINNING CAT).  Look us up and maybe we can meet up here in the U.S.   www.tpxtech.com

Oh, and when you have sulfur(if you're using HFO) you need to use Magox in order to not only treat vanadium but to treat sulfur by creating magsulfate which won't hurt your machines.  :)

[#5]

Can anyone please tell me how to clear engine codes on a 1990 Kenworth T800 with a Catepillar 3176?

[#6]

Have experieneced generator vibration with some CAT C18 offload and onload (at 1000hrs, 1500hrs, 2000hrs,3000hrs) , what could be the probable cause?

I checked the following & were functional; mountings, injectors, turbos, air cleaner, fuel sample, no leakage from the damper, alternator end bearing greased, swapped ECM,