Maintenance: How a Powerful Fuel Additive Can Make a Difference ...

Alec Taylor

Fuel Additives have a long and sordid past in American business history. The term “Snake Oil” is one that was appropriately given to many of them and in a few places is still used today.  Fortunately, the industry has improved dramatically and in most instances the term is pretty archaic. Just as technology in fuel has come a long way in the last few decades so it has with fuel additives as well. You can now easily find effective products that add lubricity to your engines, lower the pour point therefore reducing the risk of freeze ups in winter months and clean your injectors to name a few examples. There are some more robust ones out there that solve a myriad of issues.

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What is Important

The first thing you need to ask yourself is what is important to your organization:

• Is it important to attain better fuel efficiency in your vehicles? Many additives will help this by flushing the fuel system of impurities, adding lubricity to the engine and cleaning the injectors. There are a few additives that claim to contain a catalyst to improve combustion that will further improve fuel efficiency.
• Does lowering your emissions and potentially reducing the number of regenerations appeal to you? A number of additives address this situation by improving combustion so that there are less unburnt hydrocarbons being expelled into the exhaust.  If you have any type of DPF or DEF system installed there will be less to be caught and the number of regenerations needed will be diminished—sometimes significantly.
• How about better lubrication for your engines or flushing your injectors and removal of varnish and carbon buildup? What we are really talking about here is the basic function that most higher end fuel additives perform. Namely, they have detergents and lubricators—the detergents to clean the injectors and remove varnish and carbon buildup, and lubricators to lubricate the injectors and upper cylinder heads.
• Removal of algae and other biologic growth? You only need to get caught once to realize that an algae bloom in your tanks can prove to be a major headache. There are a few additives that are designed to remove biologics specifically. There are also a couple of comprehensive additives that have a biocide included to make sure that no biologics grow in the tanks.
• Fuel stabilizers or anti-corrosives? While most people think of stabilizers in regard to storing fuel the fact is that a good stabilizer will not only do that but will also dissipate sludge that will form along the lining of the tanks. Anti-corrosives also protect the inside of the tank and the fuel lines and are an absolute must to eliminate long-term maintenance issues.

Use and Cost

Once you decide what you want your additive to do you can then look into other factors such as ease of use and cost:

• An interesting but seldom mentioned attribute of additives is concentration level.  They range from a 32-ounce bottle treating from 100 to 2,500 gallons. Most heavy-duty comprehensive additives are generally administered in anything from 1/ to 1/10,000 ratios.  This can mean the difference between using a 5-gallon pail or a small 1/2-gallon jug to treat the same 5,000-gallon drop.
• The cost of a good fuel additive usually revolves around the ingredients. Most additives are either alcohol or glycol based. Some have large amounts of kerosene or ether. Others are more complex and are sometimes referred to as Organic Metallic compounds. These tend to be comprehensive products that perform many roles and are more concentrated.  Generally speaking a single-use type product is far more expensive than one that performs a multitude of tasks although there is a pretty wide range of costs with these powerhouse additives as well. You need to shop around and do your homework before committing to an additive as costs can vary wildly.

There are many additives that adequately solve singular problems or issues but the best “bang for the buck” seems to come with those that simultaneously address a number of issues.  Generally speaking, the cost to treat a gallon of fuel using one of these can range from 3 cents and up.  An Organic Metallic compound can be used in any hydrocarbon based fuel and is often mixed in a 1:10,000 ratio.  One of these use as their main ingredient a catalyst that decreases combustion point of Diesel fuel by 200 degrees (150 in gasoline) thereby providing a more thorough burn which yields more power, better fuel efficiency and decreased emissions.  Some will also increase engine lubricity and clean the injectors, have stabilizers, anti-corrosive agents, biocides and de-mulsifier of water.  Most of the these cost between 4 and 8 cents per treated gallon of fuel making it an excellent value proposition when one considers the versatility of the Organic Metallic Compounds.

Alec Taylor is Vice President of Fuel Ox (Hackettstown, NJ).  He can be reached at (844) 8-FUELOX visit www.fuelox.com.

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In the engine industry, market requirements are changing rapidly: one key driver is performance optimisation, which is particularly noticeable in the fuel additive industry. After all, fuel additives play a major role in ensuring that modern engines can develop their full potential. In the production of a high-quality additive formulation, solvents play an essential role. They are used as a carrier fluid and thus also contribute to improved environmental compatibility of engines. Read here which solvent properties are decisive and what else you should expect from your solvent supplier.

Dynamic market demands placed on the fuel additives industry

Fuel additives are subject to high performance pressures. Whenever there are new engine developments or changes in legal requirements/regulations for new fuel compositions, there is a need for higher qualities and new specifications. To combine different active molecules in a single additive formulation, a carrier fluid consisting of aromatic solvents is required. With the ever-changing market conditions, technical managers in the additives industry often ask themselves questions such as, how to ensure consistent high quality or which solvents can help to comply with new regulations or fuel specifications? Heavy aromatics are particularly well suited to meet the specific product requirements here.

5 must-have solvent characteristics for the production of fuel additives

Aromatic hydrocarbons are used as solvents and are particularly suitable as carrier fluids for critical ingredients of additives, such as     

• defoamer,     
• demulsifiers and corrosion and fouling inhibitors,     
• octane and cetane improvers,
• extreme pressure and cold flow additives. 

To create a high-tech product from a base fuel, innovative additive formulations with high-quality aromatics are needed. Solvents must be of a high purity and consistent quality that meet stringent legal requirements for certain end products, maintains specifications and enable sophisticated formulations. You should therefore pay close attention to the following criteria, when selecting a solvent supplier: 

1. Stable solvent quality from batch to batch.
2. Constant high solvent quality with an aromatic purity of more than 99%.
3. Long-term storage stability of the product.
4. Stability against temperature fluctuations.
5. Option for solvent qualities with low naphthalene content.

A plus in service that matters 

Your solvent supplier should deliver the highest quality and not compromise on the above properties. In addition to a high-quality product, other services are also of great importance: What safeguards and options does the solvent supplier offer in terms of production continuity and logistics, to ensure that you too remain able to deliver? What technical or laboratory facilities are offered to assure your quality? Reliable solvent manufacturers offer a wide range of services such as laboratories with extensive testing and analysis facilities or digital logistics solutions. In the best case, trustworthy suppliers offer personal advice and enable tailor-made solutions for you. One of the special services that will be of great advantage for their future cooperation is a customer focus with a strong orientation towards joint development programs and innovative cooperation. In this way you can benefit directly from the solvent supplier's extensive expertise and many years of experience.

Read here why cooperation with the solvent supplier is important for manufacturers of fuel additives!

Conclusion

Solvents must have distinctive properties to allow the production of high-quality fuel additives, which comply with all legal requirements. You should trust solvent suppliers with tailor-made services and products, such as Haltermann Carless' Caromax® heavy aromatic product range, which includes its low naphthalene content (Caromax® LN) and extra low naphthalene content (Caromax® XLN) and can therefore meet particularly strict legal requirements.

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