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It enhances the fuel performance of liquid hydrocarbon based fuels like diesel, which is used as the main combustion fuel in railway rolling stock to power locomotives and passenger rail vehicles (DMU’s).

The original development of the VFT fuel catalyst (ferrous picrate) or FPC, started back in 1950 when a US company registered a patent to started to the development of a catalyst for diesel engines. The goal was simple, to improve the internal-combustion spark and ignition characteristics of diesel engines and thereby reduce the overal fuel consumption by improving the fuel combustion. Its ultimate goal was to try to develop a product that delivered 100% thermal fuel efficiency. (i.e. ensure that all fuel was burned and converted to power by each spark).

This was a noble goal that potentially offered a lot real-world benefits, especially when you consider that even modern diesel engines, only have thermal fuel efficiencies of around 35~40%.

Early tests with the Ford Motor Company showed very promising results with documented fuel consumption improvements of 16% coupled with 30% improvements in usage horsepower.

It seemed like they’d discovered the Holy Grail - More power for less fuel.

Unfortunately, despite this early promise there were two key issues they could not resolve:

1. The cost of production
2. The stability of the catalyst.

Simply put it cost too much to produce and it had low yields. Even worse the final product only remained stable for a matter of hours, before it became inert and therefore ineffective, due to oxidisation of the catalyst in the fuel.

It wasn’t until 1961 that a new company purchased the original patent with the goal of making a new improved version of the ferrous picrate catalyst that did not degrade and become ineffective.

For this they needed to invent a completely new way of manufacturing FPC, which they did by adding a protective anti-oxidant into the chemical structure of the catalyst.

This stabilised the product without creating any additional toxicity to the exhausted gases. This new process was produced in higher concentrations, which meant greater productions yields along with another interesting side effect.

During extended testing they were asked to test FPC’s effectiveness with the lower grades of fuel. To their surprise they found this new improved FPC also improved the combustion QUALITY of lower-grade diesel fuels. Making them an attractive cost-effective fuel to commercial industry in the post-war era.

Although the improved manufacturing process now gave better yields, cost were still relatively high. They needed a way of improving the 32-1 concentration of the additive to make it attractive to large users in industries like Rail.

Development continued throughout the 1970’s as the patent for FPC changed hands a number of times as different companies took ownership to investigate its use for commercial enterprises using jet engines, petrol engines, diesel engines and bunkered fuels. During this period many improvements were made to the production process of FPC that improved it’s flame-burn, soot reduction and CO2 emissions qualities.

No one denied that FPC was great product and that it has a long history with documented evidence to show that it without question:

• Improves fuel consumption of diesel engines by 4 ~10% (depending on comparable load).
• It reduces exhausted carbon emissions by 50%
• It reduces exhausted HC particles (soot) by 80%
• It reduces the HC particles in engine oil – improving life & performance
• It reduces exhausted CO, heavy metals & sulphur by as much as 12%
• It improves usable engine power by improving ignition & fuel-burn
• It improves the oxidation of waste products like carbon reducing engine wear and tear and improving maintenance life cycle costs
• It contains a strong natural biocide, which controls fungal, yeast and bacterial infections - improving the usable life of bunkered fuels

But unfortunately no one had yet discovered a production process that unlocked the commercial potential of FPC. By finding a manufacturing process that reduced the catalysts production costs.

Until that is in 1994, when an Australian company developed a brand new process that reacted puric acid with an iron carbonyl in an alcohol solution in an inert nitrogen atmosphere, to finally make the breakthrough.

This new process resulted in super-sized yields perfect for the production of FPC as a commercial scale fuel catalyst, producing stable concentrations of 10,000-1.

After rigorous long-term use in the Australian and US Mining and Industrial Power Generation Industries, the FPC catalyst has is now being made commercially available to the Rail industry for use with diesel motorised units (DMU’s) and locomotives via Vidiwave Fuel Technologies (VFL).

Supported by Worldwide Fuel Industry Safety and Compliance Certifications – FPC have been busy building a history of independent tests results to support it’s launch into the rail industry.

117 Independent tests on diesel engine locomotives over a 20-year period to be exact. … Now that is dedication !!

So you can be very confident that it will live up to all your expectations. To consolidate these tests, FPC is tested and APPROVED by the following engine manufacturers:

This highlighted a key issue: It takes train operators too long to develop in-house test regimes, to collect, collate, analyse and validate all their data and test results.

Operators need this data to prove to their shareholders that FPC is not only a good short-term choice delivering instant fuel savings and improved emissions.

But FPC also makes perfect sense as a long-term investment too.

It delivers reduced wear & tear and maintenance cost which in turn reduce running costs and improve the overall life cycles costs of fleet by as much as 25%.

All of which would have a very attractive ROI for ROSCO’s and shareholders over the service life of their rolling stock investments if only they could prove it in real-time. Then confidence to invest across whole fleets would be simple and risk free.

To solve this issue FPC joined forces with an established provider of hi-technology solutions to the rail sector - Vidiwave Ltd.

Over the past 16 years, Vidiwave have built up an unrivalled specialisation in the acquisition, analytics and delivery of encrypted data using wireless communications to and from a wide variety of vehicles - including rolling stock and rail.