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The main purpose of the filter is to purify diesel fuel by removing contaminants which may enter oil products (dust, water, loose particles of construction materials. A fuel filter is a must in any vehicle to protect the fuel system and the motor. The below article looks into the kinds of filters available for diesel fuel.

Filtration rating divides filters into coarse and fine. The former are used for pre-treatment of fuel, the latter – for finishing. If the vehicle is equipped with a diesel engine, a water separator may also be installed. Fine filters may be installed as parts of the fuel pump or into the fuel lines.

Only high quality filters should be used for diesel fuel purification. Low quality product have problems, such as:

• small particles pass though the coarse filtering media;
• low contaminant capture rating;
• fast clogging, meaning frequent changes;
• possible filter media damage, letting unfiltered fuel into the system.

High quality of diesel fuel purification ensures optimal engine power and protects the fuel system from damage and corrosion.

Presence of water in diesel fuel is highly undesirable. If water enters the system, combustion is disrupted and injection system is damaged. Separators must also be of high quality.

One of the most important requirements to diesel fuel filer is the ability to operate in low temperatures. This is due to the crystallization of paraffin in the fuel in cold weather. These clog filters. This problem is usually resolved by installing a temperature controller into the filter to maintain fuel temperature and ensure optimal mix of hot fuel and cold fuel form the tank.

Lacking this device, paraffin crystals can clog the filter, effectively cutting off the fuel supply.

Diesel fuel is a widespread oil product, so its use is always in the spot light. According to regulations, diesel fuel must not contain particles larger than 5 micron and water.

Particulate matter may enter the fuel in the process of transportation and storage. Water enters the fuel most often due to its contact with humid air or a temperature drop, followed by condensation.

Using contaminated fuel may cause increased wear of precision devices in high pressure fuel pumps and nozzles. This results in uneven fuel supply, degrading combustion and increasing fuel consumption. Engine start is difficult, power output drops. Water reduces the fuel’s lubricating qualities. Besides, the corrosion occurs faster, combustion, filtration and pumping characteristics are reduced.

Special mesh filters are used to address the issue of diesel fuel contamination. Their main objective is to capture solid matter larger than 80 micron. If a particle is slower, it passes on without hindrance. Fuel filters deal with those. Those consists of a housing and a filter element. Filtration removes not only particles, but also water from the fuel.

Separation is one case of filtration. It is used when diesel fuel is highly contaminated. Separators remove particulate matter from the fuel even in high concentrations. It also helps to remove water.

To increase efficiency of diesel fuel purification, a combination of various methods is often used, which have a cumulative effect if selected correctly.

A great example of equipment built with this idea in mind is GlobeCore’s UVR system. These units purify and clarify diesel fuels. The high standards of fuel products are achieved by combining special adsorption and filtration.

The main advantage of the UVR is its versatility: beside diesel fuel, heavy fuel oil, gas condensate, kerosene, etc. Switching from one product to another does not require complicated readjustment. The only thing that changes is processing rate, which depends on the viscosity and the degree of contamination of the oil product. When the process is complete, the diesel fuel remains stable and does not darken.

Diesel fuel as well as other fuels is not ideal, therefore, it has both its advantages and disadvantages.  Before you buy one petroleum product or another, getting to know with its string and weak points is a good idea.  This will help you make the fullest use of its advantages and reduce the effects of its drawbacks. So, let’s begin.

For a long time the basic value of diesel fuel was in its price, which used to be lower than that of gasoline.  It was especially advantageous for fleets to acquire such fuel due to the bulk volumes of use, which helped to make tremendous savings.  But by this day the price of diesel fuel has increased slightly, which makes us look for its other benefits.

Diesel fuel emits such harmful substances as nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon oxide, sulfur dioxide and carbon black (soot). But their number less than other fuels. Therefore, there is some cost saving on a variety of environmental charges and fees.  Another feature of diesel fuel is its safety.  Diesel engines are designed so that high flammability limit of the oil product can be maintained.  That is why diesel fuel is preferred when fuelling military combat vehicles, battle tanks in particular.

Due to the high efficiency of diesel fuel it is quite economical, so regardless of the type of transport, in which it is used, the number of additional refills is minimal.

Having good lubricating properties, diesel fuel has a positive effect on moving parts of engines, increasing their reliability and extending engine lifetime.

Speaking about the disadvantages, they are caused mainly by the chemical composition of diesel fuel.  So, one of the problems is increasing oil viscosity at low temperatures.  At minus twenty degrees Celsius it is getting hard to pump the fuel and ignition problems occur.  But it is no longer critical, as we already have solutions that allow the use diesel fuel even in arctic climate.

Cheap and low-quality fuel grades have a lot of substances with poor combustibility, which results in their deposition on the surfaces of engine components, and the corrosion of such surfaces.

Also it should be noted that diesel engines typically produce more noise during operation than gasoline ones.  And the smell of burnt diesel fuel is rather unpleasant.

During storage, diesel fuel can be oxidized, become contaminated with harmful impurities and darken.  This complicates its use in automobile engines, so this fuel should be subjected to a specific treatment in order to restore its original properties.

To solve this problem GlobeCore company has developed and manufactures UVR plants.  They allow cleaning and brightening of diesel fuel, as well as removing aromatics mercaptans, hydrogen sulfide, and some sulfur.

GlobeCore processes provide an economical solution to the problem of contaminated diesel fuel, which allows full restoration of its properties and ensures a long and reliable service life of engines and fuel systems.

Very often people do not distinguish between the terms “diesel fuel” and “heating fuel”, considering them to be identical. But is it really so?  Let’s try to understand.  We offer three criteria for comparison: consumer, economic and industrial.

In terms of consumption, there is a fundamental difference between heating fuel and diesel fuel.  Heating oil is typically used for independent heating of private houses, as well as a heat carrier for household and industrial furnaces.  Perhaps this is the only area of application for such fuel.  Therefore it is hard to escape the obvious conclusion that the range of use of heating fuel is narrower than diesel fuel.

Regarding heating fuel production, diesel oil cut of straight-run distillation must be used to obtain it.  The fractional composition of freshly obtained heating fuel is somewhat heavier and it has high viscosity.  In the process of its production there are no strict limitations for some indicators: cetane number and iodine number, as well as its cloud point.  At the same time, the values of all important parameters of diesel fuel are always standardized by the current standards of the fuel and energy sector.  Therefore, their production requires “finer” tuning of equipment used for distillation of petroleum products.

Well, this is where we smoothly approach the price issue.  The average difference in furnace fuel and diesel fuel price is about 30-40%.  Diesel oil is more expensive mainly because of the wider field of application.  Often the question arises: Can diesel fuel be used instead of furnace fuel and vice versa?  Theoretically it is possible, but it all depends on how you are going to use this oil product.  Each application has its own peculiarities that must be considered.

It should be noted that the similarity of furnace fuel and diesel fuel is often used by dishonest dealers. Indeed, some types of diesel engines may be operated with furnace fuel, but this does not mean that it can fully replace diesel fuel.  In order to avoid sales of cheaper product posing as more expensive one, furnace fuel is supplemented with special red dyes and chemicals (furfural and diphenylamine) which make it easy to distinguish furnace fuel from diesel fuel, intended for use in respective engines.

Another pressing question: Is it possible to improve the quality of heating and diesel fuel?  The answer is a definite “yes”.  Very often, during long-term storage, oil can oxidize due to contact with atmospheric oxygen.  Contamination can also accumulate in the oil.  This changes the natural color of the fuel, which draws attention of the buyer in the first place.  Application of GlobeCore UVR plants allows for clarification of furnace and diesel fuel, as well as removal of aromatics, water and solids that are extrinsic for this class of petroleum products.  The process of purification with this plant allows removal of hydrogen sulfide compounds, reduction of sulfur concentration, lowering of wax content, removal of unsaturated hydrocarbons.  After processing with GlobeCore equipment, the fuel does not oxidize nor darken again.

Probably all vehicle owners heard at least once in their life that sulfur has a negative impact on diesel fuel.  But if you ask what exactly is this impact, not all of them will know the answer.  So, why is  sulfur so harmful?

First of all, it promotes fuel oxidation causing environmental pollution with exhaust gases.  But the effect of sulfur on diesel fuel does not only bring negative consequences.  It improves the lubricating properties of this oil product, thereby reducing wear of engine structural parts.  Therefore, when choosing fuel, it is advisable to find a “middle ground”, which on the one hand would provide sufficient lubricity, and on the other hand would minimize environmental damage.  Experts recommend buying fuel with a sulfur content of 0.15 to 1.5%.

In our time the refining industry mainly uses physico-chemical and chemical methods of desulfurization of diesel fuels.  A chemical approach involves the use of hydrotreating and purification with sulfuric acid and physico-chemical method involves absorption and adsorption purification.

Sulfuric acid cleaning is performed by mixing the processed diesel fuel with 90-93% solution of sulfuric acid at ambient temperature.  After all chemical reactions are complete, purified oil and acid sludge are obtained.  The latter contains all the undesirable impurities.  Theoretically, it can be used for production of sulfuric acid.  In general, sulfuric acid treatment is quite complex and requires bulky equipment.

Hydrotreating is the most common method for removing sulfur from diesel fuel as of today.  This process is very expensive.  The cost of hydrotreating units depends on the performance and the required depth of processing, and in theory it can reach millions of US dollars.

The essence of this approach is based on the interaction of hydrogen with diesel fuel in the presence of specific substances, catalysts.  As a result of chemical reactions between hydrogen and sulfur, nitrogen and oxygen compounds, we get hydrogen sulfide, ammonia and water, respectively.  This method also has its disadvantages, which manifest themselves in the form of high temperature (380-420ºC) and pressure (up to 4 MPa) of the process, as well as hardware design complexity.

But in the present conditions, the biggest drawback is perhaps a great anthropogenic impact on the ecological system due to emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere and waste water.  To neutralize the emissions caused by hydrotreating of petroleum products, additional financial and material expenses are required.

Adsorption treatment is implemented by diesel fuel contact with special adsorbents, which can be bleaching clay or silica gel.  They absorb oxygenated, sulfur and nitrogen compounds as well as other substances, which need to be removed (for example, resin).

Absorption treatment involves selective removal of harmful components of diesel fuel.  Furfural, sulphovin, nitrobenzene are used as solvents. The disadvantage of this approach is the inability to recover the used solvent and, as a result, its total loss causing increased financial costs.

GlobeCore offers eco-friendly technology that allows to remove hydrogen sulfide compounds and to lower sulfur content in diesel fuels.  It is implemented in UVR-type plants, which are also capable of lowering wax content and removing unsaturated hydrocarbons from oil products.  After purification by GlobeCore plants, diesel fuel again becomes marketable, does not re-oxidize and does not darken.

UVR plants have the following advantages:

• Due to the possibility to choose an automatic or a semi-automatic mode the process does not require constant presence of an operator.  It is only required when starting and stopping the plant and replacement of adsorbents;
• Low energy consumption;
• Versatility of application. UVR-type plant does not require any complex manipulation when changing the type of the cleansed, lightened or recovered fuel, or mineral oil.  To change one raw material for another one it is enough to stop the plant, switch to manual mode, pump out residues of petroleum from the system and replace the used adsorbent and filter.

The main industry where heating oil is used is heating services.  This oil product is most often operated in stationary steam boilers and industrial furnaces.

Typically, heating oil is burned in low-capacity residential heating systems.  It also can be used in heat generators of average capacity operated in agriculture for the purpose of drying grain, fruit, fodder preparation, etc.

The main feature of heating oil is the absence of standardization of iodine and cetane numbers, as well as its cloud point.  When comparing diesel fuel and heating oil, it can be seen that the production of heating oil is cheaper, and it does not meet environmental requirements that have to be met by diesel fuel.

The difference in price is very often used by unscrupulous businessmen who sell heating oil under the guise of diesel oil.  If you don’t call out such a seller on this trick, you can get unpleasant consequences in the form of costly repairs of fuel equipment.  Poor-quality fuel disables the high-pressure pump and injectors in the first place.

In order not to take the bait of fraudsters you must keep the following in mind:

• The color of heating oil is darker (yellowish-brown) than that of diesel fuel.  This is due to a lower degree of purification during production.
• After pouring heating oil into a transparent bowl, over a certain period of time sediment will appear at the bottom.
• It gives rise to a reasonable question: is it possible to improve the original heating oil quality in order to expand the potential areas of its application?  The answer is yes.  Special UVR-type plants produced by GlobeCore are used to solve this problem.
• They allow cleaning and brightening of heating oil, as well as removing water and solid impurities. In addition, GlobeCore processes remove hydrogen sulfide compounds from heating oil, reduce the concentration of sulfur, lower wax content, as well as remove unsaturated hydrocarbons.  After being processed by UVR-type plants, heating oil becomes resistant to re-oxidation and discoloration.
• Low energy consumption;
• Versatility of application. A UVR-type plant does not require complex manipulationы when changing the type of the cleansed, lightened or recovered fuel, or mineral oil.  To change one material for another it is enough to stop the plant, switch to manual mode, pump out residues of petroleum from the system and replace the used adsorbent and filter.

Fuel purity is one of the most important factors in reliable and prices operation of various counters and flow meters, fuelling systems, engines etc.

During transportation and storage, diesel fuel may accumulate various contaminants: solid particles, paraffin, water, rust. These can damage fuel systems causing serious failures.

Modern fuel lines are equipped with special filters, which protect the mechanism from large and small solid particles. Filters are used in small filling station, oil refineries and fuel depots, which store large amounts of unpurified fuel in tanks.

If the tanks designed for oil product storage are not maintained right, fuel may be contaminated by products of corrosion and other contaminants. Below are the main characteristics of filters for diesel fuel. This information may be of use for selection of filtration device among the products available in the market.

Fuel filter characteristics

In the general case, fuel filters may have two to four filtration stages.

Coarse filters remove only the larges particles, about 100 micron in size. Such particles can be seen with the naked eye. Fine filters remove smaller particles, 15 to 50 micron in size. These particles are quite hazardous to the engine and the fuel system.

Separator filters

Beside solid particles, engine operation is also influenced by water in the fuel. In the worst case, it will cause failure of the high pressure pump and nozzles. To prevent this, separator filters are used, which remove water from the diesel fuel. Such devices are usually installed before coarse and fine filters.

The principle of separator operation is based on separation of water and hydrocarbons by density difference. Centrifugal forces cause the heavier water to flow down the walls of a vessel and into the drain.

Current separator designs can remove up to 93% water from the processed diesel fuel. These devices can also remove solid particles and contaminants from the fuel.

What can be used by smaller filling stations and fuel depots?

A mobile separation device can be used by small filing stations. Such device can quickly remove water from diesel fuel, gasoline, oil and kerosene.

A model with additional filtration capability of 1, 5, 10 and 25 micron can also be selected.

Clarification and purification of diesel fuel

For transportation fleets and farmers with daily use of 4000 liters of diesel fuel or less, a UVR-450/6 unit by GlobeCore can work quite well. This machine removes hydrogen sulfide, reduces sulfur and paraffin, as well as unsaturated hydrocarbons. After processing in the UVR machine, diesel fuel is highly stable to oxidation and darkening.

Beside restoration of diesel fuel to market quality, the equipment enjoys other advantages as well:

• simple loading and transportation to the location by a light truck;
• automatic and semi-automatic operation modes;
• maximum energy savings;
• versatility. Beside diesel fuel, the UVR units can purify other oil products just as efficiently: gasoline, kerosene, HFO, as well as transformer, industrial and transmission oils.

High purification quality is assured by using special sorbent and filters.

Contamination of diesel fuel by solid particles or water is most often the effect of long storage in tanks, transportation and pumping. In some cases, oil products can be contaminated by microbes.

To evaluate the presence of, for example, water in the fuel, imagine how the engine will look after running on abrasive mixture supplied at high pressure.

It would seem that the problem may be solved at the fuel production stage, but even the best fuel can be contaminated while being transported to the consumer, due to oil piping, pumps and valves.

Contaminated diesel fuel can damage some of the highly precise parts of the engine, such as nozzles etc. The most sensitive is the equipment with several mixron openings. These become clogged fairly quickly even with relatively low level of fuel contamination. Important parts of the engine and the fuel system break down, and require expensive repairs.

To save money, improve reliability and extend life of the equipment, diesel fuel should be purified additionally at the location near the consumers.

GlobeCore suggests highly efficient solutions to improve the quality of the oil products before use. The UVR type units allow to remove hydrogen sulfur, sulfur, paraffin and unsaturated hydrocarbon from the fuel. After this treatment the fuel is does not oxidize and darken.

The equipment has the following advantages:

• can be operated automatically or semi-automatically, with no need for constant operator intervention. Human participation is required only to start and stop the unit, as well as to change the sorbent;
• minimum power consumption;
• versatility. The UVR can be used not only for diesel, but also for heavy fuel oil, gasoline, kerosene, various mineral oils (transformer, turbine, industrial etc). The transition from one processed substance to another is easy. Simply select manual operation mode, pump out the remaining oil product form the system, then change sorbent and the filters.

Using the GlobeCore processes to purify and clarify diesel fuel allows preventing engine and fuel system damage, eliminating down time and expensive repairs.