Marine fuel combustion improver additive development

Hello, I am Amy Challinor, a Fuels Technologist at Infineum. I’ve been leading a research project to investigate combustion improver additives with the aim of creating statistically significant data to showcase just what exactly these additives can do in marine fuels, and I’d like to share a brief summary of this for you now. For context, we have the IMO 2020 Sulfur Cap, alongside increasingly stringent greenhouse gas emissions legislations, rising fuel costs, and the changing landscape of global marine fuels, all providing OEMS, shippers and marine fuel users with new challenges and problems to overcome. Therefore, Infineum have developed a novel and proven combustion improver additive, that creates a real fuel consumption savings and emissions benefits; therefore enabling cost-saving and helping the vessel towards environmental compliance. Infineum are aware of the scepticism surrounding the use of combustion improver additives and some of the claims, and therefore, have developed a highly scientific test program to enable us to create statistically significant data to back up any claims made for this additive, using an extensive marine engine test. Fuel consumption was closely monitored during the entire test program. We start with the base fuel and then we bring in and introduce the additive to the system. After those measurements are taken, we remove the additive and go back to base fuel. And therefore, in summary, we have an A-B-A type test system. Using this test and monitoring for several days, we calculated an average fuel consumption saving of 0.9% for a very low sulphur fuel oil, and 1% for a heavy fuel oil at critical engine operating points. The emissions were also carefully recorded throughout the test program. For example, we have carbon monoxide, filter smoke number, NOx, and we're pleased to announce that the Infineum combustion improvement additive also has an impact on the emissions. In very low sulphur fuel oil, we've recorded a 10% reduction in carbon monoxide and impressively a 14% reduction in filter smoke number. In heavy fuel oil, which is typically a more severe fuel, we’ve recorded even more impressive results, with 8% reduction in NOx and up to 13% reduction in total hydrocarbon emissions. Again, this data is backed up by significant data from our test engine. In summary, Infineum have developed a proven combustion improver additive that can provide shippers with real savings in terms of volume for fuel consumption and emissions. We're excited to announce that we are now commercialising this product with a fourth quarter 2021 launch to market. If you have any questions or would like to know any more information about this novel combustion improver additive, please do get in touch, as our local sales agents will be very happy to discuss this topic further. Thank you.