Impact of Biodiesel on fuel filtration system and proposed best practices

Biodiesel acceptance and consumption has increased rapidly from the year 2018 onwards primarily as a result of government policies (Mandates in few cases); the consumption of local Make Biodiesel feedstock potentially reduces import of crude oil to save fuel import costs. Currently biodiesel usage is unregulated and non-standardized in few countries and in the cases where it is mandated and well controlled by local government. A sudden spurt in usage of unregulated, non-standardized Biodiesel started showing its consequences such as reduced fuel filter life, degradation of various engine related parts due to material compatibility issues with biodiesel demands in-depth study, research and creation of recommendations/best practices for the usage of Biodiesel in various applications. This paper will focus on roadmap of understanding the challenges related to usage of biodiesel (storing and handling of biodiesel at application site), technical challenges and its impact on fuel filtration performance supported by some of the lab test data & finally propose a recommendations or best practices to effectively use biodiesel as alternate fuel to achieve best commercial and operational advantages. Although there are several commercially well-known biodiesel feedstocks available in world, here we will discuss mainly on Palm Biodiesel (PME) which is mandatory in Indonesia. In this journey, we will be discussing various factors of biodiesel which affects the life of filter and pose challenges to other fuel system components. It will also highlight and demonstrate the advanced fuel filtration solutions from Atmus Filtration Technologies to overcome these challenges along with other recommendations of best practices to be followed by OEM, fleet management and end use. The purpose of discussion will be to minimize or eliminate the impact of biodiesel properties by using premium filtration solutions to avoid drastic changes with engine or OEM equipment.