SurePure, in conjunction with a South African oil industry consultant, Lemon Tree Holdings, applied its proprietary Turbulator technology in a test conducted in April as an alternative to biocide addition or excessive micro-filtration.
In the test, a simple initial centrifuge first separated the slurry formed as by-product of microbial growth in the marine diesel fuel on the diesel/water interface and split the bio-film ‘micro web’ that had formed inside the fuel.
The fuel was then processed through SurePure’s Turbulator technology to kill the micro-organisms in the fuel. The results were indicative of the potential to clean marine diesel even if severely compromised by micro-organisms infestation, says SurePure.
Guy Kebble, CEO, said: “These early test data are extremely promising for the marine diesel industry in particular, but possibly for all fuel diesel in time to come. Not only could the immediate environmental benefit from a significantly reduced amount of contaminated diesel fuels to be dumped or aimlessly burnt, but the recovery of severely contaminated marine diesel may be able to deliver considerable savings to the industry and increased profits to processors.”
The company says it may be possible in the future that small SurePure installations onboard ships could help eradicate microbial contamination of marine diesel at the source, with savings in tank cleaning and fuel loss.
“Cleaner fuels may also ensure better fuel economy and engine efficiency and even the extension of the life of engine components. This is only the beginning of our exploration of the potential benefits of SurePure’s Turbulator technology in the diesel industry but we believe that, together with the right petrochemical partners, we may be able to extract significant value from this application,” Mr Kebble added.