GENERAL

INFORMATION

Wärtsilä 4-stroke WS02X469

Technical Services Issue 1, 28 December 2018

Bad fuel quality incidents

For your information

Information to Operators and Owners of installations Engines concerned

concerned WÄRTSILÄ® 4-stroke engines,
both marine and power plant installations

Reference
02 Fuel oil

Introduction
During the last years, there has been an
increasing number of installations, both
marine and power plants, throughout the
world that have suffered from different
operating and engine malfunction problems
due to bad quality fuel (mainly HFO/RM
grades).
This bulletin contains general information
on these problems and is a summary of
different news bulletins and articles on the
topic.

Validity
Until further notice.

Wärtsilä Finland Oy Services Switchboard Tel: +358 10 709 0000

P.O. Box 252 (Tarhaajantie 2)
FIN-65101 Vaasa, Finland
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WS02X469, Issue 1, Page 2 / 4

Introduction
Contamination of fuels may occur at different processes and stages of refining, blending,
transport or storage, before the fuel ends up in the engine. Thus, the sources and type
of contamination may vary considerably making it difficult to identify their origin.
Fuels are normally blended of numerous different components (refinery streams) to
ensure that they meet the required specifications, like ISO 8217. Also, different blending
components such as cutter stocks and diluents are used. Contamination may arise from
impurities in any of these different blending components, and there is always the
possibility that some unforeseen detrimental side-reactions may take place during
blending. It shall be noted that many of these blending components are from other
process streams, which further raises the possibility of contamination.
Moreover, fuels may also be treated with different types of fuel additives.
It shall be noted that fuel blenders may change their supply of blending components due
to market conditions, for example if they can source cheaper alternatives. This introduces
the possibility of different impurities entering the fuel supply chain from time to time.
Contamination of different storage and transport tanks and transfer lines may also
happen if the same equipment is used to transport and transfer other industrial chemicals
in addition to fuels.
There are also risks of intentional blending of different waste chemicals into residual fuels
in order to gain economic benefits. There are thousands of possible chemical
contaminants used widely in different industries for a variety of applications. It may be
considered convenient to dump waste quantities of these substances into residual fuels,
but the consequences of the resulting fuel contamination can be severe.
The types of operational issues that arise from burning bunker fuels containing organic
contaminants include:
· seizing and sticking of fuel injection pumps
· worn out fuel injection pumps
· excessive deposit build-up on turbine blades and nozzle rings of turbo chargers
· excessive sludge formation in fuel separators
· corrosion
· filter and purifying problems
· clogging of filters
· sticky hard films stopping valve rods
· complete mechanical failure

Once the chemical contaminants have entered the fuel, it is usually not possible to
remove them by any traditional separation or filtration processes.
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WS02X469, Issue 1, Page 3 / 4

Chemical contaminants and analysing methods

Organic contamination of fuel can consist of a huge variety of substances. For example,
the following substances that are not usually found in bunker fuels, have been identified
in different contamination cases:
· alkenes
· aldehydes
· alcohols
· chlorinated hydrocarbons
· esters
· heterocyclic compounds
· ketones
· fatty acids
· phenolic compounds
· styrenes
· others

These substances will, in addition to causing operational issues, be harmful to the fuel
combustion and eventually lead to major engine problems as seen in several cases. It is
not exactly known what kind of amounts of each chemical contaminant will cause
operating or combustion problems.
There is a range of different techniques used for detecting contaminated fuels, like FTIR
(Fourier Transformed Infra-Red spectroscopy), ICP (Induction Coupled Plasma emission
spectroscopy), microbial contamination analyses for distillates, etc. However, from all of
these techniques, GC-MS (Gas Chromatography – Mass Spectrometry) has been found
to be the most suitable for detecting organic compounds.
GC-MS is an efficient analytical technique because it detects organic compounds at very
low levels with a high degree of certainty. The GC separates the fuel into individual
organic compounds and the MS produces a fragmentation pattern for each compound.
This pattern works like a fingerprint that may be compared to a database of known
organic compounds enabling each compound to be identified.

Recommendation
The following advices are of the utmost importance for engine operators and fuel
suppliers:
Fuel oils shall be consumed with extra care, i.e. closely monitor the machinery in those
locations where problematic fuels have recently been supplied.
An operator experiencing fuel related issues shall log the case in detail, documenting the
evidence leading up to, during and after the operational problems were experienced,
along with any mitigating actions taken. This shall include: the current status of the
engine machinery maintenance, fuel handling and the treatment practices routinely
applied.
By keeping a log of the encountered issues and ensuring system samples are taken at
the time of the incident in the event they are needed for later analysis, the case can be
more effectively pursued.
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WS02X469, Issue 1, Page 4 / 4

Whilst Clause 5 of ISO 8217 does not prescribe specific test methods, it is an all-
encompassing requirement specifying that it is unacceptable to supply, blend or allow
even an accidental ingress of any product(s) that would render the fuel unacceptable for
its intended use.
This is more definitively explained in the informative Annex B of ISO 8217, which states
the impracticability of carrying out chemical analysis and so expresses its expectation on
the supply chain to have in place adequate quality assurance and management
procedures to ensure that the resultant fuel is compliant with the requirements of Clause
5.2: “The fuel shall be free from any material at a concentration that causes the fuel to
be unacceptable for use in accordance with clause 1 (i.e. material not at a concentration
that is harmful to personnel, jeopardises the safety of the ship, or adversely affects the
performance of the machinery”.

The afore mentioned is also applicable to the fuel used in land-based power plants.

The impact of fuel contamination may be different on different engines. However, engine
operators need to optimise running of the fuel treatment equipment and engines to
minimise adverse effects of these contaminants. There shall be no mixing of fuels in
storage tanks and mixing shall be kept to a minimum during fuel-change over and the
start, stop and fuel change over procedures are to be followed.

Contacts
For questions about the content of this bulletin, or if you need Wärtsilä assistance,
services, spare parts and/or tools, please contact your nearest Wärtsilä representative.
If you don’t have the contact details at hand, please follow the link:
www.wartsila.com/contact

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