Repost: Marine fuel testing and marine surveying business Maritec Pte Ltd (CTI-Maritec) on Wednesday (27 July) issued an updated alert on the continued presence of chemical contaminants in ARA region bunkers, which are elevated potassium content and acid number.
Issued on 27 July, 2022
Forensic analysis by Gas Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry techniques, specifically ASTM D7845 GC/MS and Solid Phase Extraction (SPE) GC/MS, on some of the samples revealed the presence of the following compound groups at abnormally high concentrations:
It is difficult to determine a safe concentration level suitable for marine diesel engine usage or the baseline wherein machinery problems may occur. Due to the severity of the machinery problems faced, we urge vessel operators to continue pre-emptively testing the fuels bunkered in the region by accredited test methods to detect these contaminants assessing the risk each bunker stem has on the vessel machinery.
