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Independent Testing

ABYC has assembled a sub committee to write a refueling standard/test. Money was appropriated to study refueling in the current inventory of boats in real world refueling situations and possible solutions to the problems that were apparent. TSG (Testing Services Group -  http://www.tsglabs.com) was contracted to do the testing and it was obvious that the current inventory was not designed satisfactorily to meet the EPA requirements. TSG testing of ABYC’s inventory boat showed an inability to fill the boat at the designated fill rates and heel angles. Attempts to fill the boat repeatedly resulted in premature shutoffs with large amounts of fuel surging out the deck fitting. (ABYC has the results of the testing and video that was recorded during testing).

ABYC chose this boat to test Enviro-Fill’s OPS, a challenge we gladly accepted. The only changes made to the boat were connecting the vent hose to our tank sensor/vent fitting which was installed in place of the fuel level sending unit. A pressure transfer hose (1/4” fuel hose) was run with the vent and fill hose and all were connected to the appropriate fittings on our OPS deck fill.  

The tests were repeated on the same boat with our system installed with totally opposite results. Testing consisted of fills at 8,10,14,18 gpm at static float level and the same rates were repeated at 4 degrees heel angle in the four directions, forward, aft, port, and starboard. 20 fillings through the range of fill rates and fill angles resulted in good fills to the predetermined fill level with no premature shutoffs and the fill level allowed room for expansion every time.

The poor fill characteristics of this boat emphasize the advantages of our OPS over other systems offered as solutions to the refueling problems. While check valves may have prevented some of the surge and spilling they cannot address the premature shutoffs that this boat experienced without our system. Using this boat for the independent testing demonstrated that our technology is not at all dependent on the boats fuel system design to achieve complete fills to a desired level with automatic shutoff.