Herman H. Oosterhuis, president of Oosterhuis Industries, Inc., believes that the quality of fuel keeps going down, the decline in quality being widespread in some areas and worse in others. In a talk at a technical session of the Workboat Show held in New Orleans, Mr. Oosterhuis said that the United States has long been blessed with clean, low-sulphur diesel fuel.
"Apparently, this era is now coming to an end, and is causing problems for many high-speed engine users. Most lower-horsepower, high-rpm diesel engines that are designed for operating on gas oil and ASTM No. 2 diesel are seriously affected," he pointed out.
In an excerpt from his well-received talk, he pointed out that American manufacturers have done wonders, particularly during the past decade, with improving on fuel efficiency of steam plants. "It nevertheless appears that the U.S. merchant marine is now heading for at least partially switching over to diesel engines capable of burning heavy fuel, and the industry is catching up rather rapidly.
"They have been historically steam-oriented, contrary to overseas, where the diesel has been king for more than half a century. U.S. engine manufacturers of higher-horsepower, medium-speed engines already have experience with heavy fuel, and assembly in the U.S. of big-bore diesels has recently become a fact," he said.
Mr. Oosterhuis pointed out that the interest shown by the U.S. Maritime Administration for heavy-fuel engines, and the fact that more and more engineers will become thoroughly familiar with the operation of heavy-fuel diesels will, no matter how remote it may sound, in the long run be beneficial to the workboat industry.
Mr. Oosterhuis, who is a native of Holland, is a graduate of the Amsterdam Marine Engineers College.
For a free copy of the Oosterhuis talk,