DEVELOPMENT OF A HIGH RELIABILITY DIESEL FUEL INJECTION SYSTEM

MDS proposes to design, engineer, manufacture and test prototype ultrafiltration spiral wound elements that would provide adequate supplies of high quality heavy fuels to small diesel engines of 25 to 100 hp across a broad spectrum of temperatures. The heart of the technology is the use of polytetrafluoroethylene (TFE .1u pore size) ultrafiltration membrane wound in a spiral design to maximize maximize packing density by selecting proper element materials and leaf lengths. One can engineer a spiral wound ultrafiltration element that will be small and light-weight, yet produce proper volumes of ultraclean fuel across the temperature and engine horsepower ranges the Navy needs. The membrane material, TFE will remove all bacteria, solids greater than .1u and free the entrained water to produce the quality heavy fuels demanded by the close tolerances of the high speed direct fuel injectors intendcd for these engines. Although the spiral wound elements will be operated in dead-end mode, the spiral wound design and the TFE membrane allows them to be cleaned in a cross-flow manner or unwound, wiped off and rerolled for reuse.