There have been many instances of damage to fuel injection equipment with resultant blame placed on the fuel. One must remember that fuels though meeting ISO specifications of 80 ppm or less may still be problematic if the abrasive particles are small <10 micron
Then Stokes Law V = gd²(ρs-ρ)/18µ applies:
Assume particle size 10 micron, flow rate 1000 l/hour
According to Stoke´s Law, for separation of 5 micron particles, flow rate has to be reduced to 250 l/hour or by 75%
Herein lies the hard part. Although separator performance standards are now out there, application engineers fail to consider the extreme cases involving cat fines when sizing separator installations. While it is imperative to follow Stokes Law to the letter when dealing with problematic fuels it is very hard to do when the separator plant has insufficient throughput capacity to allow for the drastic reduction in flow rate to accomodate the smaller particles and in many cases reducing ship speed to accomodate separation capacity is not practical. To quote a noted British engineering authority ~ "The inhumanity to engines continues".
Keep the lights burning and don't try to dazzle the Chief with any fancy footwork!