Following our arrival in the Canary Islands last autumn we
watched an endless stream of yachts line up at the pontoon
alongside the boatyard, all of them with fuel contamination
problems. In my experience, it’s usual to find that in cases
like this the outbreak can be isolated to one or two suppliers
who have a problem with storage or maintenance – the word soon
gets around. But the engineer, who seemed to spend his entire
time doing nothing but pump out and clean tanks said no, there
was no common source for the fuel, but it was in his view part
of a rapidly increasing problem linked to the increasing use of
biodiesel blends, as there had been a major spike in the level
of boats affected since its more widespread uptake. What’s
Behind It? Fatty Acid Methyl Esters (FAME) known as biofuels,
are now being combined with conventional diesel on a wider
scale, and often in increasing amounts. Automotive diesel
specification EN590 allows up to 7% of FAME to be incorporated,
even though it is known that levels of abo