Quadrise fuel clears latest round of testing with MSC

Quadrise Fuels International announced on Friday that its ‘bioMSAR’ fuel successfully went through testing with Wärtsilä Services Switzerland in December.

The AIM-traded firm said the testing was part of the ongoing framework agreement with MSC Shipmanagement, aimed at developing innovative energy solutions.

It said the optical combustion and engine wear tests were carried out to assess the bioMSAR fuel's suitability for commercial-scale vessel trials.

The optical combustion test, conducted against ‘MSAR’ and diesel fuels, confirmed that bioMSAR has similar injection and combustion properties as MSAR.

That, Quadrise explained, meant that the bioMSAR fuel was expected to behave similarly to MSAR when used in medium- and slow-speed diesel engines.

Extended wear tests over a 250-hour period were also completed successfully.

As a result of the positive test results, bioMSAR was now cleared to move on to the next phase of assessment, which would involve hazard identification and operability studies.

The bioMSAR fuel would then be tested on the MSC Leandra during commercial vessel trials.

“The extensive tests undertaken by Wärtsilä clearly demonstrate the suitability of bioMSAR for use in both marine and power plant applications,” said chief executive officer Jason Miles.

“This is an important step in clearing the fuel for commercial supply and we look forward to progressing our final round of tests ahead of planned vessel trials with MSC for both MSAR and bioMSAR later this year.”

At 1245 GMT, shares in Quadrise Fuels International were down 4% at 1.44p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.