Refuel Systems, a Dartmouth fuel filtering outfit, is looking to increase the deployment of its filtering devices that are now on active service across the U.S. and Canada.

The group builds devices that “polish” fuel, which means they solve a fuel storage problem created by the reduction in sulphur in diesel because of stricter environmental regulations. Though these changes have been good for the environment, they have caused problems in that water and impurities can now contaminate diesel that must be stored for prolonged periods.

Though sulphur harms the environment, it also absorbs the water that collects in fuel tanks. The de-sulphurized diesel over time mixes with water and reacts to form a black sediment or emulsified water, which means the two liquids blend together.

Refuel Systems uses a series of industrial-strength filters of various sizes and strengths that first clean the impurities out of the diesel and then maintain it so it remains clean. Their main customers are the so-called “mission-critical” users of the fuel, such as the owners of emergency generators at hospitals and data centres, organizations that need to know their fuel is effective during a natural disaster, such as a hurricane.

The company started with a group of products that would filter five to 10 gallons per minute, which can be installed on-site and work on tanks holding less than 10,000 gallons. But it soon realized a lot of customers need bigger, more powerful units for tanks of up to 30,000 gallons.

 “With 10 gallons per minute, it’s excellent at maintaining the quality once you have achieved the cleaning process,” said Ray Gallant, production manager at Atlantica Mechanical, the parent company of Refuel. “But we needed something bigger because some the tanks we were encountering were a disaster.”

So Refuel designed a 100-gallon-per-minute product — a mobile unit with three filtration cylinders that is carried from site to site in a van. It then introduced a 45-gallon product that can fit into an elevator, because a lot of the diesel tanks are located in basements or in the higher stories of skyscrapers.

Refuel is technically a division of Dartmouth-based mechanical contractor Atlantica Mechanical, but it has evolved as a stand-alone business and has been increasing revenues 15 to 20 per cent in each of the past three years.

Gallant said Refuel has four employees and more than $2 million in annual revenues. Working with partners across the continent,, it now has three mobile trailers (one each in Minnesota, Ottawa and Atlantic Canada), two or three of the intermediate units and more than 30 permanent installations.

It is working on adding in the short term additional mobile units in Toronto and Florida. All the mobile units can cover markets beyond their home base.

 “We want to see a number of these, especially the mobile trailers, operating across North America,” said Gallant.

Atlantica Mechanical was formed in 2008 when a group of businessmen partnered with Modern Niagara Group of Ottawa to buy out the assets of Sayers and Associates of Dartmouth, which had gone out of business. Having started with about 50 employees, Atlantica now has a staff of about 300.