Choosing The Fuel Oil Blend That Is Right For Your Hfo Generators
Getting diesel generators to run well on heavy fuel or bunker oil is no mean feat
. Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) has almost the consistency of treacle and in some parts of the world, has an excessively high sulphur content. Burning HFO is about as good for a diesel generator as kerosene is for a petrol engine.
First of all, a minimum operating temperature must be reached before the fuel will burn cleanly in the combustion chamber. For example, with the direct-reversing two-stroke Wartsila in one of our first power station projects, we had to start the engine on distillate (diesel) then switch to HFO at about half normal operating output just to get it to work.
But when you're operating a heavy-duty commercial vessel or large stationary diesel power plant at a mining operation, where the engine may be running 24 hours a day for weeks at a time during an ocean passage or processing season, the savings by using HFO are too good to ignore.
There are six classes fuel oil in the United States, numbered 1 through 6, according to the boiling point, composition and purpose. The boiling point spans 200C to 550C, and carbon chain length from 20 to 70 atoms, o fthe fuel increases with fuel oil number. Viscosity also increases with number, and the heaviest fuel ("HFO") has to be heated to get it to flow.
The cost of the fuel typically goes down as the fuel number goes up. So the heavier the fuel, the more affordable the oil. No. 1 fuel, No. 2 fuel and No. 3 fuel are variously referred to as distillate fuel oils, diesel fuel, light fuel, gasoil or just distillate. For example, No. 2 fuel, No. 2 distillate and No. 2 diesel fuel are almost the same thing (diesel is different in that it also has a cetane number limit which describes the ignition quality of the fuel). Distillate fuel oils are distilled from crude oil.
Gas oil refers to the process of distillation. The oil is heated, becomes a gas and then condenses. It differentiates distillates from residual oil (RFO). No. 1 is similar to kerosene and is the fraction that boils off right after gasoline. No. 2 is the diesel that trucks and some cars run on, leading to the name "road diesel". It is the exact same thing as heating oil. No. 3 is a distillate fuel oil and is rarely used. No. 4 fuel oil is usually a mix of distillate and residual fuel oils, such as No. 2 and 6, however, sometimes it is just a heavy distillate. No. 4 may be classified as diesel, distillate or residual fuel oil. No. 5 fuel oil and No. 6 fuel oil are called residual fuel oils (RFO) or heavy fuel oils (HFO). Far more No. 6 is produced than No. 5.
The terms "heavy fuel oil" and "residual fuel oil" are sometimes used as synonyms for No. 6. They are what remains of the crude oil after gasoline and the distillate fuel oils are extracted through distillation. No. 5 fuel oil is a mixture of No. 6 (about 75-80%) with No. 2. No. 6 may also contain a small amount of No. 2 to get it to meet specifications. Residual fuel oils are sometimes called light when they have been mixed with distillate fuel, while distillate fuel are called heavy when they have been mixed with residual fuel oil. Heavy gas oil, for example, is a distillate that contains residual fuel oil.
The ready availability of very heavy grades of fuel oil is often due to the success of catalytic cracking of fuel to release more valuable fractions and leave heavy residue. The North American nomenclature is used in most of the world. In the United Kingdom the classes comprise 6 commonly used fuels using alphabetical designations, from Class C1 (kerosene) to Class G (heavy fuel oil). There is a Class H designation which is not yet in general use.
Bunker fuel is technically any type of fuel used aboard ships. It gets its name from the containers on ships and in ports that it is stored in; in the days of steam they were coal bunkers but now they are bunker tanks.
There is no doubt that utilizing HFO and residual fuels can save over 50% of the fuel costs for mines and marine applications. This can lead to substantial savings when running diesel generators on HFO fuels.
by: Will Diesel
Wind Powered Generator Gas Generator - According To Function A Light In The Dark: Thanks To The Generators Help! I am having problems hooking up my pulse generator to my driver Binaural Beats Generator Preventive Upkeep of Wind flow Generators - Maximizing Effective Strength Era Famous Look Alike Generator Lease a Generator: Determine What Form of Generator You Will need Nikola Tesla and the Perpetual Motion Generator Details About 10kw Wind Generators Fast Pay Generator How to Figure out Generator Size Nikola Tesla and His Secret Generator