A new dimension in fuel filter technology

Parker Racor unveils Aquabloc3D coalescing filtration media

Racor, a brand of Parker Hannifin Corporation’s Engine and Mobile Filtration Division, the global leader in motion and control technologies, is launching an innovative new coalescing filtration media that represents a technological step change in diesel fuel filtration. Unlike conventional barrier water separators commonly found on mobile equipment, which separate water from fuel with a single hydrophobic barrier filter element, the new Aquabloc3D elements use three distinct stages to ensure only clean fuel passes up to the engine. Aquabloc3D has been designed as an upgrade and replacement for existing water separator spin-on filters used in Parker’s industry-leading products found on a wide range of trucks, buses, agricultural and construction machinery. The technology stems from Parker’s extensive experience in the field of multistage coalescer elements found in many airports, refineries, marine applications and power generation.

Water and other impurities can have a severe impact on engine efficiency, as well as service and maintenance requirements. Uncontrolled fuel impurities increase fuel and service costs, cause damage to expensive engine components and reduce the useful life of expensive vehicles such as trucks, buses and construction machinery. As a result of the industry’s drive towards sustainability, cleanliness and efficiency, today’s fuels are ever-more complex, containing significantly increased levels of additives. In particular, bio-diesel fuels made from vegetable oil, tallow and waste animal oils/fats present problems for effective water separation due to low interfacial tension (IT) and these fuel’s ability to blend with water.

Parker Racor’s Aquabloc3D coalescing filtration systems are purpose-designed to enable operators to meet the challenges of dealing with increasingly sophisticated fuel. Moreover, they offer longer service life and considerably improved water separation in bio-diesel fuels.

The Aquabloc3D coalescing media is utilised in a spin-on filter element canister that contains an innovative multi-stage filtration system. As dirty wet fuel enters the Aquabloc3D element it firstly encounters a high-capacity synthetic pleated particle filtration media that removes larger unwanted contaminants such as dirt and impurities while maintaining maximum flow.

In the second stage, fuel passes through multiple wrapped layers of plasma-treated coalescer depth media. Here, the partially-filtered fuel interacts with the multi-density coalescer, effectively growing water droplets of greater than 200µm from emulsified droplets of less than 5µm. These large droplets then fall out of the flow stream through gravity to a collection bowl, separating emulsified water from the fuel.

Finally, before the fuel leaves the filter, there is a central hydrophobic cartridge, which prevents any of the now large droplets from exiting the filter and re-entraining into the fuel stream.

Commercial and construction vehicles represent substantial investments for any fleet operator. However, with the Aquabloc3D advanced fuel filtration system, equipment damage and maintenance costs can be reduced, and unplanned downtime eliminated. In short, this innovative three-stage filtration technology protects modern, high-efficiency fuel injection systems from clogging and blockage due to unwanted particles, and allows vehicles to function more efficiently, with reduced emissions.

Parker would recommend replacing 10, 20 and 30µm spin-on service elements used on their 400, 600, MD57 and LDP Series filters, with the new Aquabloc3D elements.