Acidic Products News

The recent trend in favoring newer generation engines which offer improved fuel consumption by using a longer stroke reflects the marine industry’s focus on energy efficiency. While this design does aid operators in reducing fuel consumption, it has also created the new issue of cold corrosion. The longer stroke allows the cylinder walls to cool more than with older engine designs, allowing water condensation to form on the surface which then reacts with the sulphur dioxide in the combustion gases to form sulphuric acid, a corrosive element which damages the liner surface.

ExxonMobil Marine Fuels and Lubricants upgraded its marine engine condition monitoring program. The MobilGard cylinder condition monitoring (CCM) program now has the functionality for onboard oil samples to be compared against ExxonMobil’s database of nearly 100,000 test results, helping operators to protect and optimize the performance of their engines, the company said.“The upgrade of the MobilGard CCM program comes at a time when engine builders continue to push the boundaries in developing next generation models…

Chemoil Corporation announced today that it has filed suit against Shell Trading US Co. (STUSCO) in the Federal Courts of the Southern District of Texas in connection with certain acidic products, which STUSCO supplied to Chemoil during 2003. In this suit, Chemoil is seeking indemnity from STUSCO, as well as damages for breach of contract and other causes of action. This action is directly related to a series of TAN (Total Acid Number) bunker claims received by Chemoil in New Orleans during April of 2003, which were the subject of a previous Chemoil News release (Acid Fuel/US Gulf Coast, June 26, 2003).