I will be interested to see what answers you get.
As I understand it the fuel treatment system should include centrifuges and filters. The need for homogenisers or fuel mills was, I understood, valuable where sludge is re-introduced and I shall be interested in the comments on this as I could well be very wrong.
However, if you are routinely experiencing problems with the standard fuel oil then it may be a problem with the fuel itself.
Fuel quality is a serious problem.
According to one report 13.7% of fuels do not meet the relevant fuel standards and this is said to be getting worse. It ought to be common practise to have commercial samples taken and analysed for every batch of fuel delivered. There are many problems of deliberate contamination and fuel oil is often used as a dumping ground for used motor oils, waste chemicals and the the like. Sometimes the problem is where the blend is from incompatible components and asphaltenes can be deposited.
Problems with deposits can include contaminents that are not normally tested for in the commercial sample analysis and which are only discovered after a problem is reported and the laboratories run an investigation to identify the problem. This has included polythene which blocks filters etc. For more information on this, especially for engines, the marine fuel websites are especially useful. This includes most of the test laboratory websites such as for DNV PS, Viswalab, Lintec, FOBAS, SGS and so on, as they all provide good information on the importance of the various fuel properties and issue "bunker alerts" when problems arise.
It may be, therefore, that your fuel is not to standard or is routinely contaminated as most engine fuel treatment systems are well able to handle most of the problems with fuel oils.
A fuel homogeniser may or may not solve the problem but the real problem might be fuel quality as supplied.
Some engine manufacturers now rely on digital viscometers for fuel oil heater control for the reason that these report a number of key fuel parameters and operational parameters such as the density at 98degC (the centrifuge operating temperature) density and 15degC and viscosity at 100degC (fuel quality parameters). This data also lets them compare with the suppliers data to see if the fuel being burnt is the fuel described.
JMW
