The world would not be the same without the marine transport and shipping industries that make up a significant portion of the world’s ocean maritime traffic. The world is a lot “smaller” than it used to be, and that means businesses around the world now export and ship more goods to their global neighbors in other countries than at any point in history.
Heavy fuel oil and marine fuel oil are the dominant fuels of choice for these essential business sectors. These fuels are less expensive than lighter #2 diesel fuel oil but they also have higher levels of harmful inorganic components like sulfur and vanadium.
Where there are high levels of sulfur and vanadium in the fuel, there are often concerns with corrosion damage of the engines and its associated parts. The sulfur will oxidize during combustion in the engine, with the vanadium contributing in a catalytic role, and the resulting SO2 and SO3 emissions gases will combine with water vapor already present after combustion, with sulfuric acid as the result. This is bad news for expensive ship engines, fuel systems and exhaust emissions equipment.
Many times it is cost-effective for ships burning these kind of fuels in heavy, slow-screw diesel engines to additize the fuel oil with a treatment to remediate these problem. But what kind of treatment is best to use? Bell Performance has found that the best maritime fuel oil treatments should contain most of the following elements:
- Organometallic corrosion inhibitors and neutralizers – to prevent costly and damaging corrosion
- Combustion improvers – a combination of organic and organometallic
- Surfactants – to remove accumulation of heavy end fallout from the fuel oil and to keep fuel delivery and injection systems clear and functioning at optimal performance
In today’s competitive and cut-throat world of business, marine fuel oil users need all the help they can get. Bell Performance has the answers they need with its marine fuel oil additive formulations ATX-1004DSC and ATX-1005SSD.
Bell Performance ATX-1004DSC and ATX-1005SSD are formulated to provide needed corrosion relief and combustion improvement for large diesel engines that burn heavy fuel oils with higher levels of sulfur and vanadium. Engines that use these marine ATX formulations from Bell experience better combustion perform and fuel usage rates, cleaner MFO delivery and injection systems, and reductions in costly longterm corrosion damage to expensive parts of the engine system.