THE BASICS

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EN 590 is a standard published by the European Committee for Standardisation that describes the physical properties that all automotive diesel fuel must meet if it is to be sold in the European Union.

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Although EN590 covers numerous fuel characteristics, water content is the most relevant contaminant for fuel maintenance. To comply with EN590, fuel can contain no more than 200mg of water per Kg of fuel.

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This is an extremely demanding standard. 200mg of water per kg of fuel represents just 0.02% water content.

 

Ever more commonly fuel companies are blending Fatty Acid Methyl Esters (FAME), more commonly known as biodiesel, into regular diesel and fuel oils. This has resulted from government and European targets putting pressure on suppliers to reduce emissions from their fuels. Under current regulations diesel can contain up to 7% FAME without being labelled as a biodiesel.

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WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?

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FAME is regulated under a different European standard known as EN14214. Whilst the standards are still high, FAME is allowed to contain no more than 500mg per Kg of fuel. This is 2.5 times as much as fossil based fuel. In addition to this FAME is hygroscopic meaning it attracts and retains water even from the air and it does this at a far higher rate than fossil based diesel. Whilst fossil based fuels will tend to settle this absorbed water in the bottom of the tank, FAME keeps much of this water in suspension in the fuel meaning this water may not even be visible. 

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Simply the more FAME in your fuel, the more unseen water in your tank.

 

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

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The water content in your fuel may lead to diesel bug and corrosion causing:

•           Blocked filters

•           Worn injectors

•           Increased fuel consumption

•           Decreased engine performance and power output

•           Engine failure

•           Increased down time for maintenance

 

HOW CAN WE HELP YOU PREVENT THIS?

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With our specialised equipment we are able to filter and remove almost all of the water and particulates from your fuel. 

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One kilogram of fuel from the pump with 7% FAME content will contain up to 221mg of water. This of course is before the fuel has had time to sit and absorb more water from the surrounding environment.

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Following treatment with our specialist equipment the same 1kg of fuel will have a water content below 100mg. this is at least a 55% reduction in water content compared to fuel from the pump.

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In addition to this the fuel will have been filtered to remove all particulates down to below 1 micron further helping to reduce filter blockages and wear on engine components.

 

ARE ALL FUEL POLISHING SYSTEMS BASICALLY THE SAME?

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The simple answer is no.  Some systems filter large quantities of fuel very quickly, some will filter small quantities more slowly.  Not only is there a difference in speed but much more importantly there is a significant variation in the quality of the cleaned fuel. A lot of our competitor’s equipment cannot filter out water. That means the diesel bug will continue to grow and spread. 

 

WHAT AFFECTS THE SPEED OF FUEL POLISHING SYSTEMS?

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Contaminated fuel is pushed through filters using a pump – a finer filter is harder to force contaminated fuel through so often higher quality results take longer to achieve.  The other factor is the pressure that the pump can generate.  A higher pressure will result in more rapid filtration. In essence high speed and high quality filtration requires high pressure and a fine filter.  

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When dealing with very large volumes of fuel, powerful equipment is called for.  For smaller applications which are less time critical, less power is required.  In both cases the filter size is critical in determining the quality of the fuel at the end.

 

The bug / fungi spores enter fuel tanks via purchased fuel, the breather vent and every time the filler cap is removed. Each spore has the capacity to reproduce over 1,200,000 times every 24 hours in ideal conditions

 

Simply put “the diesel bug” needs water to survive and grow. The bugs don’t live very long and when they die they leave waxy brown/black contamination in your tank.  So then you have problems – water, dead diesel bugs, rust and other contamination all of  which will be bad for your engine. If your diesel heating system is also fed from your tank, then that’s yet another problem.

 

CONTAMINATED FUEL CAN COST YOU A LOT OF MONEY FOR REPAIRS AND YET IS EASILY AVOIDED.