Sentinam Liquid Movement Solutions has successfully completed a comprehensive fuel recovery and infrastructure modernisation project at Miles Hope Farm in Herefordshire. The project was launched after contaminated red diesel (gas oil) caused catastrophic, premature fuel injector failures across four of the farm’s John Deere tractors, resulting in more than £24,000 in
repair costs and causing severe operational downtime.
Faced with the financial hit of the repairs and the potential disposal costs of 5,000 litres of contaminated fuel, Miles Hope Farm’s Service and Site Engineering Manager, Carl McIntosh brought in Sentinam’s specialist technical team to deliver a permanent solution.
Sentinam implemented a dual-action strategy to protect the farm’s high-value machinery: replacing an aging, single-skinned steel tank with a modern, fully bunded Harlequin Fuel Station 5000FS, while deploying their proprietary mobile GT Fuel Filtration Skid to clean and salvage the existing fuel.
Modern high-pressure common-rail diesel engines operate with incredibly fine tolerances, requiring an industry-standard fuel cleanliness code of ISO 18/16/13 or cleaner. Older steel storage tanks naturally accumulate water condensation over time, creating a breeding ground for microbial contamination – commonly known as “diesel bug” – which rapidly destroys fuel injection hardware.
Advanced filtration delivers injector-safe cleanliness
Before the filtration process, Sentinam’s integrated GT Particle Counter flagged the farm’s fuel at a highly contaminated baseline of ISO 19/17/15. Utilising a controlled top-to-bottom cleaning methodology, Sentinam ran the fuel through multiple stages of magnetic particle removal, water separation, and fine 3-micron particulate filtration.
Following a secondary three-hour polishing loop inside the new Harlequin tank, Sentinam verified a final real-time cleanliness code of ISO 11/10/9 – substantially cleaner than the strict requirements mandated by modern agricultural engine manufacturers.
Neil Turnbull, Managing Director of Sentinam, commented: “Across the UK, millions of litres of diesel are discarded annually due to poor storage conditions, when much of it is entirely salvageable. As modern agricultural machinery becomes vastly more sophisticated, fuel cleanliness must be treated with the same priority as mechanical servicing. We are delighted to have saved Miles Hope Farm’s fuel asset while future-proofing their fleet.”
Carl McIntosh, Service and Site Engineering Manager at Miles Hope Farm, added: “The results from Sentinam’s fuel polishing system have exceeded our expectations. By restoring our stored diesel to exceptionally high cleanliness levels, we’ve improved fuel quality across the farm while helping protect expensive injectors, pumps, and engine components from unnecessary wear. It’s a vital step that reduces long-term operating costs and improves equipment reliability.”
The successful project highlights a growing nationwide challenge for the agricultural and logistics sectors. Sentinam continues to support UK fleet operators, farms, and industrial sites by providing practical, data-verified solutions that eliminate waste, maintain regulatory compliance, and protect business-critical assets.