Stability verified. Reliability secured.

TSE

Understanding a fuel’s stability is a major requirement in achieving uninterrupted vessel operation. During secondary refining the fuel stability reserve may be reduced creating instability. Asphaltenic drop-out can cause sludging, which can block filters, pipework and lead to the engine being starved of fuel and engine black-out.

VPS test TSE to ISO 10307-1 / ASTM D4870 / IP 375. Measuring TSE along with TSP/TSA and SN data, we can provide a greater understanding and assessment of the fuel’s potential sediment behaviour.

TSE is used to assess the Cleanliness of the fuel – i.e. inorganic foreign matter such as sand, rust, dirt, cat-fines. Assessment of whether sludge is from dirty or unstable fuel, will identify if current system is capable of coping with such fuel.
 

Whilst hot filtration stability tests (TSP/TSA/TSE) indicate how much sediment may precipitate from a marine fuel sample, the measurement of the fuel samples “stability reserve” highlights the likelihood of asphaltenic precipitation, irrespective of how much sediment is present.

For this determination, VPS use ASTM D7061 to measure the Separability Number, (Reserve Stability Number (RSN)), of residual and low-sulphur blended fuels.

So, Separability Number (SN), indicates the resistance of a fuel to form sludge.

SN is an excellent accompaniment to the routine hot filtration methods. It can identify potentially troublesome fuels (unstable) even when the HFT method is indicating a low sediment content.

Conversely, it may indicate that a high sediment fuel is in fact quite stable and unlikely to form sludge.

This information in combination, is extremely useful from an operational perspective, as it will indicate in advance if and what mitigation steps are appropriate.