NYK Group Develops New Additive to Combat Distillate Fuel Paraffin Wax Build up at Low Temperatures

Cold flow illustration provided by NYK Group. Image Courtesy / Image Credit NYK Group.

NYK and fellow NYK Group company Nippon Yuka Kogyo Co. Ltd. Thursday announced they have jointly developed a new fuel additive to help prevent potentially harmful paraffin wax build up within distillate fuels at low temperatures.

"The new agent, 'Wax Breaker,' can get between the molecules of paraffin crystals that cause coagulation, prevent them from growing larger, and thus prevent coagulation. This can improve the fluidity of fuel at low temperature and prevent potential accidents," the companies said.

Attention to the issue of wax build up has grown in recent years, particularly as the amount of distillate fuel being burned has increased as vessels operating in North America and Europe look to comply with the respective 0.10% emissions control area (ECA) sulfur caps.

Indeed, as Ship & Bunker previously reported, the latest ISO8217 specification introduced a new reporting requirement on cold flow properties for winter grade distillates, namely cloud point and cold filter plugging point.

"The requirement to report cloud point and cold filter plugging point have been introduced to protect against cold operability issues which have been experienced since the introduction of 0.10% S limit and new, more paraffinic fuels coming into the market," Chevron Fuels Technologist Monique Vermeire said at the time.

Fuel testing agency VPS also said at the time: "The new requirements for cloud point and cold filter plugging point acknowledges the importance of cold flow characteristics, where VPS has taken the lead to highlight this adverse development over the last couple of years. We therefore strongly encourage to always test cloud point and cold filter plugging point on distillate fuels."