The test
platform was
the Karen
N, a
1996 Patriot
Marine 40'
by 14' boat
built for
the
Chesapeake
Bay
Foundation's
Karen Noonan
Memorial
Environmental
Education
Center on
Hooper
Strait.
Karen N's
powerplant:
A
Caterpillar
3116TA
coupled with
a Traktor
waterjet
drive. The
Foundation's
environmental
mission made
this boat a
natural for
the
fuel-saving
device,
exhaust-reducing
Rentar Fuel
Catalyst.
To test
exhaust
emissions,
they used a
Wager 6500
Smoke
Opacity
meter, which
detects the
amount of
particles in
exhaust.
Just how
accurate is
the Wager
6500?
Accurate
enough that
the states
of New York,
New Jersey
and
California,
among
others, use
the Wager
6500 for
automotive
emissions
tests. They
ran the
opacity
tests before
and after
the
installation
of the
Rentar Fuel
Catalyst and
they
reported the
difference
as
startling.
It
registered a
10.3 percent
reduction in
opacity
after the
Rentar Fuel
Catalyst was
in place.
The
difference
in fuel burn
was even
more
significant:
Between 3.8
and 30.9
percent
depending on
rpm, for an
average of
19.1
percent.
