About Fitch Australia

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) position on all fuel additives is to view them with suspicion until proven otherwise.  Fuel additives must be proven safe and not have changed or created new/harmful emission species by way of the combustion process.  Metal additives are known to be in this group.  Metals as a group, when used in fuel additives, are known to reduce visible exhaust smoke output but at a cost.  Metals do not burn up during combustion process.  The problem with metal additives is that the metals reappear in the exhaust particulate.  Metals are known to have the same biological effects just like diesel particulates and as such should be avoided.  Any metal additives as a group are not to be recommended for reducing diesel particulates.

The Fitch Fuel Catalyst will be recommended for use in on highway and non on road internal combustion engines.  As of 25th April 1997, only diesel fuel additives that have been registered by the EPA may be used in diesel powered equipment in underground mines.  Only these registered additives may be used to ensure no harmful agents are introduced into the mine environment (this legislation is to be expanded to cover all fuel additives used on all internal combustion engines).

The Fitch® Fuel Catalyst is EPA certified and registered under U.S.Federal Register Volume 54: 40 CFR 85.2114(1).

As part of the EPA certification and registration process, including California Air Resources Board (CARB) certification, a total of more than thirty-five (35) test reports were reviewed.  These reports were conducted by various independent and EPA recognised laboratories, university research facilities, US Military including Pratt & Whitney contracted by the US Defence Force, various State and Federal agencies, corporations and infield test reports by commercial fleet operators.  These reports covered scientific/analytical research, exhaust emission analysis, emission reduction performance, fuel consumption, operational performance analysis and catalyst life and performance life cycle.

All research laboratory tests conclusively confirm that the Fitch® Fuel Catalyst is indeed a true catalyst by definition.  (A catalyst affects a chemical change without changing itself or giving any element of itself during or after the reaction.)  The Fitch® Fuel Catalyst is not consumed in the reaction it promotes.

Third party testing conducted by the Carnegie Mellon Research Institue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and the Oak Ridge National Research Laboratory, Tennessee for the Department of Energy showed significant positive results.  These tests were Atomic absorption (AA) and ICP spectroscopy tests on fuel samples (each test using 10 samples of commercially available brands of fuel) exposing fuel to the Fitch® Fuel Catalyst pellets for two weeks in both gasoline and diesel fuels.  Both facilities conducted testing to the one parts per million level.

Testing completed at the specific request of the US EPA, Ann Arbor, Michigan as part of the EPA 511 certification criteria (AA) spectroscopy tests at the parts per billion level by the University of Florida and the Department of Energy have all concluded that in fact the Fitch® Fuel Catalyst does not leach/release any traced metals and/or chemical elements of itself into any of the fuel samples tested.