Fuelstar claims new test success with catalyst

Ian Cornelius says his Fuelstar lasts for 500,000km or 12,000 hours in off-road engines.

Smoking is a health hazard - every cigarette pack has a warning to that effect.

Tony Woods feels a similar warning should be applied to diesel trucks belching black smoke into the environment.

Adelaide-based Woods is the Australian distributor for Fuelstar. The fuel catalyst is designed by former Air New Zealand engineer Ian Cornelius, who says it improves combustion.

Woods says he's especially proud of a recent test on a fire engine by Victoria's official Environmental Protection Agency testing centre, Vipac Engineers and Scientists.

Conducted to Australian Design Rules (ADR) standards, the results showed the 5.2-litre Detroit Diesel V6 turbo-diesel's exhaust emissions dropped by more than 35 per cent after the installation of a Fuelstar.

"The test graph clearly shows consistent and substantial improvement at each stage of the test," Woods says.

"At 1170rpm the Bosch Smoke Units (BSU) reading was a dirty 5.7 in standard form and a near-perfect 9.6 with the Fuelstar.

"At 1600rpm it was 5.6 and 9.4 and so on until the final at 2600rpm which measured 3.7 standard and 5.9 with the Fuelstar."

Woods says the Vipac test supports similar trials by California Environmental Engineering, a test laboratory accredited by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the California Air Resource Board.

However, Fuelstar still polarises opinion, despite tests and testimonials from customers.

Says Cornelius: "We've sold more than 150,000 Fuelstars in a 14-year period."

"If they didn't work we would have been out of business 12 years ago. It is as simple as that."

Cornelius says real-world tests, in which units are fitted and their performances monitored, continue to produce the same result - a reduction in emissions and improvement in fuel economy, both in petrol and diesel-fuelled engines.

The Fuelstar fuel catalyst is a stainless steel canister containing metal pellets. The main ingredient of the pellets is tin.

Cornelius says that once plumbed into a vehicle's main fuel line, the fuel passes through the canister in the same way it does a simple fuel filter.

The difference, he says, is that as it passes through the canister, minuscule particles of metallic tin are released into the fuel supply.

They are carried through to the engine's combustion chambers where they act as a catalyst in the combustion process.

In simple terms, says Cornelius, the tin changes the combustion characteristics of the fuel, giving a more complete and more prolonged fuel burn, resulting in improved engine efficiency and performance.

He says Fuelstar, which lasts for 500,000km or 12,000 engine hours in an off-road engine, is a world leader in the field of nanochemistry.