Residual fuel oil, or Heavy fuel oil (HFO) is the heaviest oil product from distillation processes. Also from various cracking processes residual fuel oil blending components are being produced, havin

Did you know….?? Fuel oil

Residual fuel oil, or Heavy fuel oil (HFO) is the heaviest oil product from distillation processes. Also from various cracking processes residual fuel oil blending components are being produced, having different properties. 

Cracking produces various fuel oil components

An example of typical cracking process for the production of fuel oil components is the so called visbreaker and catalytic cracking. Visbreaker residue is typically a high sulfur fuel oil blending component, and from the catalytic cracking process the gas oil fraction is called cycle oil, the residual fraction often called slurry oil.

Distilled fuel oil is created by physically separating crude oil, while cracked fuel oil results from chemically breaking down heavier, more viscous molecules 

Important properties of residual fuel oil, or HFO, are the viscosity (ranging from 10 – 700 mm2/s), the sulfur content (from 0,10 – 3,50 %) and the density at 15 °C (typically 991,0 or 1.010,0 kg/m3), amongst other parameters. Also the compatibility and stability of a residual fuel oil is important, where stability indicates whether the fuel oil tends to precipitate asphaltenes in the form of sludge. Compatibility means the property of two different fuel oil blending components mixed together and producing a stable fuel oil blend.