There are two kinds of fuel catalysts: diesel fuel catalysts and petroleum fuel catalysts. But, there are a large number of products marketed with the word catalyst. The fact that marketers advertise non-catalysts as catalysts cause confusion. For those looking to improve the fuel mileage of an automobile, truck, or machine, misnomers and misconceptions can make finding the right product difficult.

If you are looking to improve fuel efficiency — be the engine gasoline or diesel-powered — there is only one solution, a fuel catalyst.

Catalytic converters and fuel additives and treatments do not improve “gas” mileage.

But again, it can be difficult to know what a fuel catalyst is and what are not fuel catalysts. To understand what a fuel catalyst is, it is necessary to understand what a catalyst is. By understanding what a catalyst is, it is no longer difficult to differentiate between the fuel improving mechanisms that are catalysts and chemical additives/treatments that are not.

What a Catalyst Is

A catalyst is an element that generates a molecular level change in a chemical compound. The key, however, is that a catalyst produces a chemical change without itself changing. In other words, a catalyst does not degrade, oxidize, break down, or burn up with use.

Precious and heavy metals the most common catalysts. The same way gold does not rust, catalysts do not change or react even though they create molecular-level changes in chemical compounds. Though geared for a younger audience, ScienceNewsforStudents.org explains a catalyst best:

“During any chemical reaction, molecules break chemical bonds between their atoms. The atoms also make new bonds with different atoms. This is like swapping partners at a square dance. Sometimes, those partnerships are easy to break. A molecule may have certain properties that let it lure away atoms from another molecule. But in stable partnerships [covalent bonds], the molecules are content as they are. Left together for a very long period of time, a few might eventually switch partners. But there’s no mass frenzy of bond breaking and rebuilding.

Catalysts make such a breaking and rebuilding happen more efficiently. They do this by lowering the activation energy for the chemical reaction. Activation energy is the amount of energy needed to allow the chemical reaction to occur. The catalyst just changes the path to the new chemical partnership. It builds the equivalent of a paved highway to bypass a bumpy dirt road. A catalyst doesn’t get used up in the reaction, though. Like a wingman, it encourages other molecules to react. Once they do, it bows out.”

Fuel Catalyst Versus Fuel Additives and Treatments

Catalysts compose the essential components of fuel catalysts. The strict definition of a fuel catalyst — very much akin to that of a catalyst — is a mechanism that produces a molecular level change in fuel without itself changing. Fuel additives and treatments are not catalysts.

Fuel catalysts are different in almost every respect from fuel additives and treatments. While additives and treatments may catalyze — produce, generate, begin, etc. — a minor change, they are not catalysts. For one, fuel additives and treatments burn up when fuel combusts.

Secondly, most “catalytic fuel additives” do not actually catalyze a change in fuel. Most additives and treatments do not change the chemical composition of the fuel. They simply become an additional component of a mixture of hundreds of other chemical compounds found in fossil fuels.

What Fuel Additives and Fuel Treatments Do

Additives and fuel treatments are chemical compounds. Different formulas accomplish different ends. Increasing fuel efficiency a measurable amount is not the purpose of additives and treatments.

Fuel Additives that Remove Carbon Buildup

Some fuel additives clean the internal components of an engine. Because of partial fuel combustion — instead of a complete burn, — diesel engines become congested with carbon buildup. There are fuel treatments that, as they pass through the internal components of an engine, remove carbon buildup.

There are four basic types of system cleaning additives and treatments.

Fuel Treatments

Fuel treatments are one type. Gas treatments are inexpensive and typically serve the purpose of boosting cetane and octane ratings. Gas treatments do not remove carbon buildup. Rather, gas treatments prevent it.

Fuel Injector Cleaners

Dirty fuel clogs fuel injectors. Almost all fuels have impurities. Fuel injector cleaners claim to remove the impurities that clog your injectors.

Fuel System Cleaners

The claim is that not only do fuel system cleaners do a better job cleaning the interior of an engine because of superior cleaning agents, they also clean a larger portion of your engine.

Multi-System Additives

For both your fuel and lubrication system, multi-system additives are supposed to be a catchall.

Fuel Catalyst Lead Replacement: Mislabeling Fuel Additives and Treatments that Increase Octane and Cetane

While some clean the interior components of an engine, other fuel treatments and additives increase the cetane or octane rating of fuels.

There are two ways in which a petroleum engine can combust fuel. Ignition from spark plugs is the proper method. But, the pressure from pistons compressing gasoline inside the cylinders can cause petroleum to pre-ignite.

When gasoline pre-fires in an engine, the result is knocking. To prevent knocking, a vehicle owner must either purchase higher octane fuel or put additives in the tank. The higher the octane of fuel, the more pressure is required to combust the fuel.

Diesel engines do not have spark plugs. Diesel engines are compression engines. When the pressure is sufficient, the diesel injected into the cylinders ignites. The higher the pressure when diesel combusts, the greater the sum of power generated.

While lead replacement treatments serve a purpose, they are in no respect fuel catalysts.

Purpose of Fuel Treatments and Additives

The purpose of treatments and additives is to increase the efficiency at which an engine runs and burns fuel. But again, additives and treatments do not increase fuel efficiency. In fact, according to AutoExpress.co.uk, additives and treatments diminish fuel — “gas” — mileage.

“While these additives do help in certain situations and with different engines, the additives you should steer clear of are those that claim to improve fuel economy. Even with the best will in the world, the reality is that any savings you make in economy will be more than canceled out by the price of the fuel additive in the first place.

What’re more, independent tests by consumer group Which? have revealed that these supplements don’t tend to deliver on their promises of adding oomph to your engine – some can even increase the cost of a petrol refill by 50 percent! Most of these products claim to increase a fuel’s octane rating (a higher number can make the engine run smoother), but none managed even to equal the rating of premium-grade petrol.”

Treatments and additives may have a purpose, but they are not catalysts and they do not increase the number of miles a vehicle, truck, or machine can operate per mile or hour.

Fuel Catalyst Vs Catalytic Converter

A catalytic converter is quite different than a fuel catalyst. Both are mechanisms and both generate chemical changes as a result of the precious metals they contain. But, a catalytic converter is a post-combustion device while fuel catalysts are pre-combustion devices.

A fuel catalyst produces a change in fuel. A catalytic converter changes the chemical composition of emissions.

Purpose of a Catalytic Converter

Catalytic converters can not increase fuel efficiency — “gas” mileage. Catalytic converters reduce harmful emissions. A catalytic converter has no effect on the combustion process, only what occurs with respect to emissions once the fuel leaves the exhaust manifold.

While catalytic converters are not a fuel catalyst, they are made — in part  — of catalysts. That is to say, the reason they have the capacity to reduce harmful emissions is that the active agents in catalytic converters are catalysts, precious metals.

Almost all catalysts — fuel catalysts or otherwise — are precious metals. All catalytic converters are made in part from precious metals.

How a Catalytic Converter Works

Again, catalytic converters are post-combustion mechanisms. The catalytic converter on a vehicle, truck, or machine is next to the exhaust manifold. When an engine burns fuel, that exhaust passes through the exhaust manifold to the catalytic converter.

The precious metals inside the converter — superheated from the exhaust that passed through the converter prior — combusts the unburned fuel that in the exhaust. All exhaust contains unburned fuel. By combusting unburned fuel, a catalytic converter cleans exhaust and reduces toxic and global warming emissions.

Washington University in St. Louis provides an in-depth explanation.

“A catalyst is usually a mixture of at least two metals because one serves as a catalyst for the oxidation reaction and the other serves as a catalyst for the reduction reaction. Noble metals” such as platinum, palladium and rhodium function as catalysts and increase the rates of reactions

Modern catalytic converters are constructed from a tough, heat-resistant ceramic material that is coated with catalysts like the noble metals mentioned above. The function of the ceramic is to provide a large surface area for the catalyst. As the emission gases pass through the catalytic converter, molecules temporarily “stick” to the metal surface and react together. The more surface area that is available, the more opportunities there are for reactions because the catalyst keeps the molecules near each other to give them time to react.”

Fuel Catalyst Technology

A fuel catalyst, on the other hand, is a mechanism, not a chemical. The purpose of a fuel catalyst is to increase the number of miles or hours a vehicle, truck, or machine can operate on a gallon or liter of fuel. The purpose of fuel catalyst technology is to reformulate fuel so that it generates more power per unit of measure.

A fuel catalyst is a mechanism mounted on the fuel line between the tank and the engine. It is a cylindrical mechanism through which the fuel passes. Precious metals — catalysts — line the interior of the mechanism. When fuel passes through the catalyst, the precious metals produce a chemical change — a reformulation — of the fuel.

Do Fuel Catalyst Work and How

Fuel catalysts work in a similar fashion to a catalytic converter. Just as a catalytic converter uses precious metals to combust the unburned fuel in the exhaust, a fuel catalyst uses precious metals to oxygenize fuel prior to combustion.

In its natural state, diesel, petroleum, and all other fossil fuels are not uniform. Instead, fossil fuels are a heterogeneous mixture with clumps and pockets of fuel. Because fuel molecules are polarized, they cluster together. Fuel clusters prevent a clean burn because they prevent fuel oxygenation. In order to burn, fuel molecules must have exposure to oxygen.

which leads to poor fuel efficiency and heavy emissions.

Catalysts in Fuel Catalyst Depolarize Fuel Molecules

Again, it is the natural polarization of fuel molecules that lead to fuel clusters. In order for a fuel to burn, the individual molecules must oxygenize. The molecules inside a fuel cluster have no exposure to oxygen. As a result, the molecules inside a fuel cluster do not combust. Unburned fuel molecules that escape with the exhaust enter the atmosphere as polluting emissions.

Simply, the precious metals in a fuel catalyst depolarize the molecules that constitute a fuel. The result is a homogenous fuel. When the molecules in a fuel cluster lose polarization, the fuel clusters break up exposing the molecules inside the cluster. That leads to more complete combustion.

Emissions and Fuel Efficiency Increase as the Result of a Fuel Catalyst

Different catalysts perform emissions reductions and fuel efficiency improvements at different levels. The Rentar Fuel Catalyst can improve the fuel efficiency of diesel trucks and heavy equipment by between 3 and 8 percent. On a diesel generator, fuel efficiency can improve by up to 12 percent. On boilers and furnaces, the Rentar Fuel Catalyst improves fuel efficiency by up to 30 percent.

With respect to emissions, the Rentar Fuel Catalyst reduces particulate matter — smog — by 19.2 percent on diesel engines. The Rentar reduces black smoke — the biggest concern with respect to diesel engines — by 44 percent. The Rentar Fuel Catalyst reduces the most recognized greenhouse gases — CO2, NO, Nox, SO2 — by more than 19 percent as well.

Why the Rentar Fuel Catalyst

In addition to being one of the most efficient fuel catalysts on the market, the Rentar comes with a 10-year warranty. To find out about Rentar’s guarantee with respect to return on investment, contact Rentar today!