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Fuel Catfines and Its Impacts - A Case Study

fuel bunker cat fines

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idristomorrowland
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15 views3 pages

Fuel Catfines and Its Impacts - A Case Study

fuel bunker cat fines

Uploaded by

idristomorrowland
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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FUEL CATFINES AND ITS IMPACTS -A CASE STUDY

Bunker fuel supplied to the Ships currently has more of quality issues
rather than the quantity issues. One among the major problems of
bunker fuels is Catfines. Especially in the recent times vlsfo fuel are
witnessed with high Catfines percentage. Catfines are by product of
refineries that cause major impacts of liner surface, rings, and
subsequent allied impacts on other components.
Catfines:
Catfines comprise of oxides of Aluminum and Silica. Catfines are used
as a catalyst to enhance a particular process in the refinery. Catfines
are used to extract more of light fractions from heavy fuels. Later,
Catfines are recovered back during the recovery process. If the
recovery process is not efficient then Catfines will finds ways into the
fuel.
Catfine Damage:
Recently a ship bunkered fuel in one of the middle east ports
received fuel which when tested depicts high Catfines which was
read as 56ppm.Though it was less than the threshold limits when the
fuel was put in use vessel started witnessing troubles. Post use of the
subject fuel two of 6 units showed scoring marks and severe damage
of Liner surface.
Source: MAN. A typical microscopic image of Liner damage by
Catfines.
Vessel had remnants of old bunkers in stock thus changed over and
approached TRIBOCARE for guidance.
Tribocare offered the following guidance to get the Catfines reduced:
1. During probing of the subject case, Tribocare noticed that
previous bunker also had higher Catfines around 40ppm.
2. Also, the level of the fuel tanks had been lowered much below
so the Catfines that got accumulated at bottom had finds its
way into the Engine and damaged the Liner.
3. Tribocare advised the Vessel to diligently drain the settling and
service tanks frequently at an hour interval till the water stops
coming from the drainpipe and fuel starts coming.
4. Catfines are hydrophilic in nature that gets attracted towards
water. Also, due its mass Catfines will settle at bottom. Thus, a
frequent draining will enable to get rid of the Catfines.
5. Efficient purifiers will also enable to optimize the Catfines
levels. Run the purifiers with rescued feed through put and
optimize the back pressure (based on the operational
condition) will enhance the efficiency of separation thereby the
catfines are removed as it of higher mass. Due to centrifugal
action heavier particles will be throw to the periphery and finds
its way out through the sludge outlet.
6. Appropriate micron sized filters will aid in not allowing the
dangerous size, that fall between 10-to-25-micron size, which
are potential in causing damage. Few other vital advisories
were offered to reduce the catfine level and ensured a smooth
operation.
Tribocare also helped the vessel in conducting the replica
analysis to understand the impact of the catfine damage in
those two liners.
For more info, please contact [email protected] and
[email protected] provides technical advisory
for all the Fuel and Lubricant problems faced on-board.

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