Dealing with adulterated fuel in their operations is a reality South African industry to bear with. Thus far, the only effective vigilance for companies to protect their machinery from adulterated fuel is through enhancing quality assurance. This can be realised through critical testing, cost-effective actions, and actionable steps to hold suppliers accountable. Otherwise, they will be incurring unscheduled repair and replacement costs in their machinery or equipment maintenance programmes.
By Jimmy Swira
Recently in South Africa, 70 fuel suppliers were implicated in fuel adulteration following thorough testing. To underline its gravity, the Parliamentary Committee on Energy discussed the matter at length – an issue of national economic significance.
The matter has brought to the spotlight a concern that may have been taken lightly or overlooked in heavy industry. The question is: Just how much of the fuel in the market is adulterated? And what may this have cost companies in machinery maintenance over the years?
One thing is clear: the revelation could only be the tip of the iceberg.
Clarion call
For industries, unquestionably, the development is a clarion call to ensure that fuel used for operating their critical machinery meets expected quality standards devotedly. It is far-fetched to assume that hefty penalties will be a deterrent for would-be culprits, resulting in the cleansing of the fuel supply chain and better quality. For starters, there is no such thing as clean fuel, as contamination occurs from the supplier to the storage facility in industry.
In light of this, Craig FitzGerald, ISO-Reliability Partners, urges industry to adopt and adhere to best practices in fuel quality assurance. Sharing insights from ISO-Reliability Partners’ experience, he highlights the often-overlooked risks of adulteration and suggests measures to ensure cleanliness.
Overlooked risks of adulteration
Adulteration has a significant impact on fuel. Mainly, it affects quality, safety, and the environment. In particular, common adulteration agents such as illuminating paraffin (IP), used transformer oil, and gear oils, among others, affect fuel in the following ways:
- Reduced lubricity: IP significantly lowers diesel’s lubricating properties, essential for high-pressure fuel injection systems.
- Altered viscosity and density: These physical changes affect combustion efficiency and mechanical performance.
- Engine damage: IP leads to increased wear, engine failure, and higher maintenance costs.
- Safety: From a safety perspective, Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) from used transformer oil are highly toxic and regulated under the Basel Convention. The combustion of PCBs generates dangerous by-products like hydrogen chloride, PCDDs, and PCDFs, known for their carcinogenic and mutagenic effects.
- Failure of diesel engines: There is risk to equipment in the form of diesel engine failure under load due to poor lubricity. This can result in operational hazards and unsafe machinery conditions.
- Environmental impact: Adulterated fuel leaves a considerable environmental impact through toxic emissions of diesel particulate matter (DPM) and chemicals. If that is not worse, adulterators use the fuel market to illegally dispose of hazardous industrial oils and PCBs. In the process, they create long-term soil and air contamination.
- Huge economic ramifications (loss to fiscus):
Fuel adulteration has huge economic ramifications. In particular, the ensuing tax evasion represents a significant loss to the South African fiscus. “Losses to the South African fiscus exceed R3.6 billion a year. This affects the broader economy and reduces public sector environmental enforcement capacity,” laments FitzGerald.
Ensuring fuel quality assurance
Unfortunately, what suppliers do to the fuel is out of the control of industry. Fortunately, companies can adopt thorough measures to ensure that the quality of the fuel they procure, meets expected quality assurance standards.
In effect, FitzGerald recommends that companies adopt critical testing methods and other proven, cost-effective actions.
i. Critical testing
In critical testing, he refers to on-site real-time sensors like Yateks®Africa FuelTrust that provide immediate readings of density, viscosity, dielectric constant (detects pollutants like paraffin and PCBs), temperature, and water/moisture content. “These sensors offer ±2% to 5% accuracy and are suitable for continuous monitoring,” he assures.
ii. Cost-effective actions
However, critical testing must be complemented by cost-effective actions such as:
- Fuel sampling and laboratory testing at regular intervals.
- Fuel sampling should include spectrographic analysis and not only SABS
- Comparative analysis against known EN590 diesel standards.
- Checking lubricity and chemical composition, especially when using unbranded or ‘white site’ suppliers.
- Fitment of ISO micro fine diesel filtration systems
Actionable steps
While doing their part to ascertain fuel cleanliness, it is important that industries are forthright in demanding the same from fuel suppliers, states FitzGerald, as he outlines critical actionable steps, which include (not necessarily in order of significance):
- Written certification of compliance with EN590 or other recognised fuel quality standards.
- Test results per batch, including density, viscosity, and sulphur content.
- Audit rights and access to supplier quality control records.
- Use of branded suppliers with traceability and public accountability, as unbranded white sites are statistically more likely to adulterate fuel.
- Installation of in-line monitoring technology in bulk holding tanks to verify quality at delivery points.
Over and above, companies should insist that supply contracts include: penalties for non-compliance; immediate termination clauses upon detection of adulteration; and requirements for traceable sourcing and distribution logs. The old adage of preventation is better than cure, as this approach is more cost-effective and certainly easier than dealing with the consequences after they occur.
Legal grounds for litigation
So, are there legal grounds for litigation in the event of concrete proof that the use of adulterated fuel has caused machinery damage?
In response, FitzGerald contends that strong grounds exist, particularly under three conditions: “Firstly, equipment damage can be forensically linked to substandard or adulterated fuel. Secondly, suppliers were found in breach of contract or negligent in quality assurance. Thirdly, environmental laws have been violated (e.g., improper disposal of PCBs via blending).”
Specifically, the following are relevant legal frameworks and precedents that cover fuel adulteration:
- The National Environmental Management Act (107 of 1998) regulates the safe handling of hazardous substances like PCBs.
- The Consumer Protection Act could support claims for defective or misrepresented fuel products.
- Contractual liability can be enforced if service-level agreements are in place for fuel quality.
In fact, the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy‘s (DMRE) confirmation of 70 failed fuel samples is a legal precedent, indicating a documented regulatory breach and strengthening industrial claims of negligence against identified suppliers.
Radical mindset change
There is need for a radical mindset change. Companies should start viewing fuel cleanliness as pivotal to machinery maintenance – an operational imperative, not as an afterthought – and to commit adequate budgets accordingly.
Of course, there are grounds for potential litigation once it has been established that damage from adulterated fuel is forensically linked to a specific supplier. However, banking on compensation from litigation is cold comfort when a company has already incurred hundreds of millions in lost revenue, besides unplanned replacement and repair costs. Even more, typically, litigation is a long-winded process with huge financial implications and no certainty of a desired outcome.
By and large, the bottom line is: companies in heavy industries should take proactive steps to mitigate effects of fuel adulteration.
ISO-Reliability Partners provides industry with substantial and quantifiable improvements to Plant and Asset protection. Combining expertise in the fields of Filtration, Lubrication and Tribology, the company offers an advanced and comprehensive service to customers. The Company owns the iconic Filter Focus brand of superior performance micro fine hydrocarbon filtration systems.
