Cerion Energy’s GO2 diesel fuel additive is very different from the usual marginally useful stuff. It’s more like the equivalent of turning your ordinary diesel marine engine into a state-of-the-art lean burn beast.
Cerion Energy is a company started by ex-Kodak scientists, and GO2 works by using nanotechnology, in this case 160 Cerium Dioxide and Iron Oxide atoms suspended within a crystalline structure of 320 radical oxygen atoms. The effect is rather like using a catalyst that is everywhere. Whereas the catalysts that clean your exhaust work by passing the gases over a solid with a large surface, and therefore missing a lot of opportunities, nanoparticles are similar in size to the molecules whose combustion in you motor’s cylinders they are helping.
Cerion started out by supplying the big consumers in the commercial marine, mining, oil & gas and rail industries, but the big players in the yachting industry soon contacted them.
Independent tests on super yachts Apogee and Big Fish, and winning a 2011 Dame Award for Most Eco-Friendly Product, all helped to build GO2′s current reputation in the yachting industry.
Through thousands of hours of on-road, marine and rail tests, GO2 has been proven to achieve 8-13% improvement in fuel efficiency while providing a reduction of up to 40% in particulate emissions and 10-20% in greenhouse gas emissions – which is all very laudable, but how much do you have to pay for it?
I checked Cerion’s price against the price of diesel at the dock across the USA, and was very pleasantly surprised. As I write this, diesel prices vary from US$7.20 to US$3.50 a gallon and topping up with the recommended amount of GO2 adds 14 cents a gallon to that, i.e. between 2% and 4%. Since you should be able to achieve at least 8% improvement in consumption, it’s worth it just to reduce your fuel bills. The 40% reduction in the muck that leaves filthy stains on your hull and the 10-20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions are the very rich gravy that comes with the product.
To find out more, take a look at Cerion’s website, or their ad on LinkedIn
Most of the sailing folk to whom this blog is dedicated also use auxiliary motors when they have to, so I don’t feel I need to make excuses for talking about something that makes the experience a little more pleasant.
