Heavy fuel oil: can we talk about it?

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Pardon my ignorance on this topic. I know large cargo ships used this or use this as fuel. What other industries use it? If it is phased out as a fuel, what would be done with it? Just trying to learn. Already googled it also.


Thank You kindly
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I know that it has been used in large commercial boilers and industrial boilers in the past. It has to go through a pre-heating stage in most cases before it is fired.
Was told that it was a real mess to work with.
 
Originally Posted by Snagglefoot
I believe one option is asphalt production, freeing that oil for cracking and making higher end products.


Interesting, thank you for the info
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Originally Posted by walterjay
I know that it has been used in large commercial boilers and industrial boilers in the past. It has to go through a pre-heating stage in most cases before it is fired.
Was told that it was a real mess to work with.



Yeah, its gotta be really, really hot to even be pumped
 
Originally Posted by walterjay
It probably will not meet current EPA standards so I doubt it is used anymore.



But, will it still be used worldwide or....?
 
Before my time, the Fore River Shipyard had a cruiser contract canceled. They had already built the steam powered turbo generator power plant. A tanker trailer parked in an alley was the tank. The rig powered the AC welders for the entire yard until it closed 40 yrs later. Once a week the tanker trailer was topped off with oil so thick it had to be heated to be pumped. The old timers said the road tar looking stuff was Bunker C
 
Delivered propane to a tannery that had a boiler that burned bunker c. It needed a propane pilot because the oil was so heavy it was difficult to light. The oil had a unique odor that the operator said it was basically crude with the sand removed.
 
Originally Posted by 53' Stude
Originally Posted by walterjay
It probably will not meet current EPA standards so I doubt it is used anymore.



But, will it still be used worldwide or....?


Yep - about 100% chance that it will still be used worldwide. Hard to regulate what other countries do...particularly when they're operating ships at sea...and those ships operate under flags of convenience. So, the owner of the ship can "shop" for a country in which to register that ship, and find a country that would like the registration revenue while not requiring any environmental regulation...compliance with labor laws...or whatever the owner is seeking to avoid.

Been happening for quite a while.
 
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Ships and old buildings in NYC used the stuff. I think the ships have agreed to no longer user it. Big push in cities to no longer user is for heating. You could see the smoke coming out when the boiler was running.

I think the word for this stuff is barely refined.
 
I sawSomething recently on the discovery channel about great lakes shipping. Whatever ship was they were highlighting Used both. They would run it out at sea on heavy bunker oil and then were forced to switch within such a distance of land. I know they made a big fuss about a filtration rig that had to be cleaned regularly to keep it running. Also make a big deal about how much diesel he burned affect in their profit compared to the bunker oil.
They used to haul that stuff through the border when I was there and on a rainy damp night you could see the tank steaming down the road hauling it to the local Air Force Base, and prison to run the huge heat plants. One of the drivers once told me if it ever got broke down and they couldn't get the tank to delivery fast enough it set up in the tank. When it did that they have to haul it all the way to New Jersey and put the tanker inside of some giant oven building so that you could get it hot enough to remove. It's nasty stuff and burns really dirty , right off the end of the pollution scale. That's probably why you don't much see it anymore.
 
The driver that used to haul that hot tanker past me every day told me one day that one night he got a ticket for smoking in the cab. It was one of our more zealous stateys, the kind who would write his mother a ticket. The sad part is he never smoked hauling gasoline but with Bunker oil it meant nothing. He said it takes a torch to make that goo burn. Far more like road tar than fuel oil .
 
I worked at a shingle manufacture and they got the oil like that for making the asphalt. Couple million gallon tanks on the property. They also used it as a heating medium to use on all the double wall pipes for the transport of the liquid asphalt to the different sites where it was used in the manufacturing process. They had a special boiler that heated the oil up for the heating pipes..
 
On the other hand … have filled a ship with ULS diesel since that's all the refineries produced …
$9 million and no reward points …
 
Originally Posted by Driz
I sawSomething recently on the discovery channel about great lakes shipping. Whatever ship was they were highlighting Used both. They would run it out at sea on heavy bunker oil and then were forced to switch within such a distance of land. I know they made a big fuss about a filtration rig that had to be cleaned regularly to keep it running. Also make a big deal about how much diesel he burned affect in their profit compared to the bunker oil.
They used to haul that stuff through the border when I was there and on a rainy damp night you could see the tank steaming down the road hauling it to the local Air Force Base, and prison to run the huge heat plants. One of the drivers once told me if it ever got broke down and they couldn't get the tank to delivery fast enough it set up in the tank. When it did that they have to haul it all the way to New Jersey and put the tanker inside of some giant oven building so that you could get it hot enough to remove. It's nasty stuff and burns really dirty , right off the end of the pollution scale. That's probably why you don't much see it anymore.


They still use it, quite extensively, in shipping, it is the predominant fuel source for every ocean going freighter. Near land maritime law now mandates that it not be used in port however, so I believe once they get a certain distance from shore they have to switch over to diesel.
 
HFO is sill used in shipping but under IMO rules, effective Jan 1, 2020, the sulfur is 0.50% max. Prior to Jan 1 the worldwide max was 3.50% with lower limits in certain areas like with US coastal waters. The higher sulfur fuel is still made because not all refineries are able to reduce the sulfur in that part of the barrel enough. The price difference between the very low sulfur hfo and the higher sulfur is around $100/tonne (about $16/bbl - a lot in today's weak oil market)

Some ships have gone to diesel and some have installed scrubbers to run the higher sulfur HFO. I don't think there is much cheating at least for bigger ships and operators. An owner can find his ship arrested in port if any cheating is caught.
 
Originally Posted by GJM120
HFO is sill used in shipping but under IMO rules, effective Jan 1, 2020, the sulfur is 0.50% max. Prior to Jan 1 the worldwide max was 3.50% with lower limits in certain areas like with US coastal waters. The higher sulfur fuel is still made because not all refineries are able to reduce the sulfur in that part of the barrel enough. The price difference between the very low sulfur hfo and the higher sulfur is around $100/tonne (about $16/bbl - a lot in today's weak oil market)

Some ships have gone to diesel and some have installed scrubbers to run the higher sulfur HFO. I don't think there is much cheating at least for bigger ships and operators. An owner can find his ship arrested in port if any cheating is caught.




Thank You for sharing the info. And I thought the stuff was just discarded since it's so thick and needs heated to flow.
 
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