For some years now the Algae-X diesel fuel cleaner has troubled me. These units are extremely popular among the diesel engine crowd and are widely used on a lot of diesel engines. I even recall that Yanmar offered them as an accessory item at one point, and may still, not sure. Well this week, as I mentioned the other day, I've been here in Portland, Oregon conducting an engine certification class for the ABYC and the topic of the Algae-X came up during our session yet again. The question was, what did I think about the effectiveness of this popular device? The photo below shows the unit I'm referring to in case you are not familiar with these nifty little units and where it integrates into a typical diesel fuel system:



I've taken more than a few of these units apart over the years and basically the fuel runs through the unit and gets exposed to some reasonably powerful permanent magnets, that's it. There is really nothing exotic about their design beyond that. I've been told by Algae-X sales people that the magnets essentailly neuter the microbes and stops them from proliferating.


I've questioned the name of the product. Algae requires sunlight to proliferate. If you are getting sunlight into your diesel fuel tank, you have bigger problems than the Algae-X can deal with. OK, so the stuff is not actually algae, but it is in fact microbial growth. These microbes are indeed living organisms, albeit microscopic.


So, my next question is, how much magnetism does it take to have an impact on microbes? I went to the science on this and discovered an interesting white paper discussing this in a medical context. Excerpts from the white paper relevant to this topic follow:


“Electro-therapies utilize low voltage electric micro-currents in the blood and body tissues to disable a wide variety of microbes, including fungi, bacteria and parasites. With this, they have been shown to be remarkably effective with all kinds of diseases and conditions. In addition, very short bursts of a strong magnetic field are used to treat infected lymph glands, tumors and other parts of the body that may contain pockets of pathogenic microbes or cancer cells.”


“ An oscillating magnetic field between 1 and 100 Tesla in strength has been used with similar good results to kill microbes in food samples or living tissue. When treating humans and animals the field strength commonly ranged from 2 to 5 Tesla. One Tesla is equivalent to 10,000 Gauss or 10 K Gauss. In an experiment with mammary cancer tumors in rats after 6 days of treatment 15 out of 18 showed tumor shrinkage while the remaining 3 had a growth interruption.”



So, could the Algae-X folks please respond to this post with some information on how many Tesla of magnetic field strength their relatively small magnets actually deliver? I'm not buying their premise and suggest that the product is one of the most successful marketing gimmicks I've ever seen. I'm not a micro-biologist, but I need somebody to explain the true science behind the Algae-X to me, and provide me with specific data to support the long standing premise that these devices actually have an impact on the microbes that can grow in diesel fuel. My position is based on the above two paragraphs, and the fact that I'm certain the magnets inside an Algae-X device will not generate anywhere near even 1 Tesla of magnetic field strength. Get back to me people, I need help on this.


 


Written by: Ed Sherman
Ed Sherman is a regular contributor to boats.com, as well as to Professional Boatbuilder and Cruising World, where he previously was electronics editor. He also is the curriculum director for the American Boat and Yacht Council. Previously, Ed was chairman of the Marine Technology Department at the New England Institute of Technology. Ed’s blog posts appear courtesy of his website, EdsBoatTips.