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.