FIVE years on since the International Maritime Organization’s 2020 Sulphur Cap, catalytic fines are still damaging marine engines, condition monitoring company CM Technologies said.

Catalytic fines are very abrasive aluminium and silicone particles formed as a by-product in the oil refining process.

In higher viscosity fuels, these particles are suspended in the liquid and can be removed by fuel separators. But lower sulphur fuels that comply with the 2020 cap tend to be less viscous, and so cat fines settle at the bottom of tanks and can remain undetected.

CM Technologies managing director Matthias Winkler said he expected high levels of cat fines to reduce after the introduction of the sulphur cap.

“But despite new fuels and advanced engine technologies, problems persist. Cat fines remain a major problem for marine engine operators,” he said.

Winkler said fuels with cat fines exceeding the ISO8217:2017 standard were being bunkered in some areas, including in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp region. But more commonly, cat fines are dispersed back into the tank and engine in rough seas.

Engines running on low sulphur fuel are therefore more likely to be damaged by cat fines, Winkler said, because of the difficulty in removing them through conventional fuel separators.

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