Marine Premium Diesel Performance in Leisure Boats

Through a market analysis, PETROBRAS identified an opportunity to launch a new product dedicated to diesel boats market. This paper describes the activities performed by PETROBRAS research center (CENPES) during the new diesel development: new or improved methodologies to ensure reliable comparative performance, fuel consumption and smoke emissions analysis, with appropriate precision to elucidate differences between the new fuel and the conventional marine diesel. Performance tests were conducted by using radar monitoring. For fuel consumption, constant engine speed tests were made, with fuel flow measurement and acquisition. Smoke tests were performed using a total flow smokemeter, installed directly on the exhaust gas pipe. Results showed that, because of its special characteristics, the new diesel allows performance gains up to 6% and smoke emissions reduction up to 83%. Fuel consumption remains in the same level of regular marine diesel.