Not All Bunkers Are Equal, And Neither Are the Additives

The demulsifier that resolves a distillate water-in-fuel emulsion cleanly and quickly may have no appreciable effect on an HFO emulsion stabilised by viscoelastic asphaltene-resin film!

In recent years the maritime industry has been bombarded with explanations and sales pitches from pseudo fuel experts, individuals whose careers sit in banking or sales rather than on the water or in an engine room, telling marine professionals they don’t really understand fuels or how engines relate to fuel consumption and power output.

Much of that rhetoric is laughable to anyone who has actually managed a fuel system at sea. Some of it is frankly