Purasolve PWD Efficiently Eliminates Paraffin Wax From Filters in Oil Tanker

The Situation

Paraffin wax build-up was causing issues for the oil tanker’s clean fuel oil tank (CFOT) fuel filters, creating inefficiencies and significant downtime.

The existing cleaning program was time-consuming and involved manual scrubbing of the filters.

The Challenge

The crew’s goal was to find a cleaning solution to remove the paraffin wax build-up that eliminated the requirement for manual scrubbing, as well as a safer chemical alternative that would reduce exposure to chemical fumes.

The Solution

Envirofluid trialed Purasolve PWD, a proprietary mixture of bio-based ingredients specifically formulated to break down heavy organics in crude oil, including paraffin wax and asphaltenes. It is a safe and effective alternative to traditional hazardous chemicals.

The product immediately softens and dissolves paraffin wax, asphaltenes, and bitumen without using heat. This allows crude oil to flow more smoothly and prevents equipment breakdown due to friction caused by wax buildup.

Purasolve PWD enables paraffin wax to be removed from filters without scrubbing by dissolving and releasing the build-up.

The Outcome

The previous product used for the manual part of the CFOT fuel filter cleaning process required soaking and scrubbing to get the job done. Purasolve PWD improved the filter cleaning process in terms of time, efficiency and safety.

It enabled the crew to remove some of the steps where employees had previously been exposed to hazardous chemicals, and eliminated the need for manually scrubbing the filters.

The crew were impressed by the low odour and low foaming properties (issues they’d had with previous products) as well as the fact that it is removing sludge from the filters.

Additionally the PWD can be reused by filtering out the contaminate from the bottom of the cleaning tank allowing them to get better economical use out of this product.