Fuel & Fuel Systems

Fuel system flushing uses various methods to clean all parts of a fuel system, Marlin specialises in hot oil and velocity fuel flushing to fully cleansed pipework and strip contaminants from the system.

Over time, contaminants can clog components, leading to reduced fuel efficiency. It is important to break down these deposits to help engines run more smoothly.

Marlin uses specialist closed loop technology to avoid time consuming strip down, and confirm clean lines through onsite sample analysis and RVI inspections.

Fuel System Flushing

Fuel flushing on vessels is an essential part of the maintenance procedures to ensure reliability, efficient and safety of a vessels fuel system. Fuel flushing is vital to systems in order to:

Remove contaminants – water sludge, microbial growth and debris leading to fuel degradation and poor quality fuel.
Prevention of corrosion – contaminants especially water and microbial growth can cause corrosion in the fuel lines and tanks.
Enhancing fuel efficiency – a clean system allows fuel to flow more freely and improves combustion efficiency.
Prevents engine damage – dirt, sludge or water in fuel can damage vital engine components such as injectors, pumps and filters.
Restores fuel quality – if fuel has been sitting in a tank for an extended period it can degrade.

Fuel Polishing

Diesel bug is the common term given to bacteria, fungi, and microbial growth found in fuel, tanks and systems. Like most living things this growth needs water to survive and multiply, water gets into tanks and systems through condensation and leaks through filler points, however even new diesel can also have extremely high water content (400ppm +) allowing microbial growth to take hold. The by-product of ‘Diesel Bug’ in tanks is the sticky black residue left when the bug dies, and this leads to;

Blocked filters
Clogged fuel pumps/injectors
Reduced engine efficiency
Increased wear on the engine and exhaust smoke.

Fuel polishing is the cleaning of fuel of microbial growth, particles, and water contamination. Marlin have state of the art fuel polishing equipment that filters particles from the fuel to around 1micron and removes the water content to below 100ppm, (well below the industry standard of 200ppm) we remove the fuel from tanks and containers into our polishing tanks, so we can carry out a full tank clean with Biocide treatment whilst the fuel is being polished.

Fuel Polishing can also be used to recovered ‘un pumpable fuel’, this is the fuel that normally resides at the bottom of the tank and is deemed unusable. Marlin can generally return a rate of over 70% of fuel. Potentially saving thousands of pounds per year on fuel costs, depending on size of vessel, tanks or fleet.