The Situation
Smart Filtration Solutions, a Donaldson bulk filtration partner in the United Arab Emirates, helps Middle Eastern businesses maximize their production capabilities. Smart Filtration Solutions is a valuable resource to their customers, providing diesel fuel expertise, completing on-site fuel tests and designing bulk filtration systems that enable equipment operators to achieve more and save money in the process.
Downtime costs can be crippling, ranging from $500 USD per hour per rig for an oil maintenance company to $150,000 USD per hour for a gold mine. Equipment repair costs can add up to $50,000 USD or more on top of those lost production figures.
The Challenge
One of the biggest problems Middle Eastern industrial companies face is unexpected downtime and loss of production due to contaminated diesel fuel. Downtime costs in these industries can be crippling. For an oil drilling or mining operation, hundreds of thousands of dollars per hour can be lost, on top of substantial equipment repair expense. Atif Manzoor, Managing Partner of Smart Filtration Solutions, says that 90% of his clients’ diesel engine failures are due to dirty fuel. But many companies are reluctant to install a good bulk fuel filtration system until after they have experienced significant equipment breakdown resulting in costly downtime
Atif Manzoor, Smart Filtration Solutions Managing Partner
The Clean Solution
To prove Atif’s point, a major road construction company in the United Arab Emirates was operating normally with only occasional fuel problems. One day they received a load of fuel so bad that it contaminated their entire fuel infrastructure. Six tanks and more than three hundred pieces of equipment were affected. With Smart Filtration’s help, the customer installed a Donaldson bulk filtration system at the main inlet feed of the tank farm to avoid deliveries of contaminated fuel in the future. Each tank was also equipped with a T.R.A.P. Breather to prevent the ingress of airborne dust. Polishing filters were added to the tank farm outlet as well as each on-site fuel truck to ensure that only the cleanest fuel is dispensed into their equipment.
- $50,000 USD — Out of pocket repair and replacement cost of an injector system on a large piece of production equipment like an excavator.
- $30,000 USD — Savings in onboard fuel filters after installation of a bulk filtration system.
The Result
After ensuring only clean diesel left the fuel farm, the customer was back to business as usual, without any further work stoppages due to dirty fuel. According to the customer, he has “a trouble free fuel farm and a fleet of clean-running equipment. We will be putting the same system on our plant farm in Abu Dhabi in the near future.” By eliminating breakdowns due to contaminated fuel, Smart Filtration Solutions is reaching its goal of helping their customers achieve more.
