Compared with diesel fuel, heating oil has a wide range of applications due to its composition.
Heating oil is produced from used diesel fractions in direct fraction distillation. Fractional composition of heating oil can be harder than fractional composition of diesel fuel. The viscosity of heating oil is 8 mm2/sec, and diesel is 6 mm2/sec.
To date there are no regulations that impose restrictions on the cetane number and iodine, or a cloud point of heating oil. The sulfur content of this petroleum product can be up to 1.1% by weight.
Table 1 compares the hydrocarbons content of diesel fuel and heating oil.
Table 1
The average hydrocarbon composition of diesel fuel and heating oil
|
Hydrocarbons |
Hydrocarbon content,% vol. |
|
|
Heating oil |
Diesel fuel |
|
|
Paraffin |
3,62 |
32,49 |
|
Naphthenes |
7,51 |
31,72 |
|
Indanes, tetralines |
26,61 |
6,69 |
|
Alkyl benzene |
23,52 |
11,65 |
|
Indene |
7,4 |
1,74 |
|
Naphthalene |
15,29 |
0,59 |
|
Naphthalenes |
5,42 |
7,11 |
|
Acenaphthene |
4,93 |
4,06 |
|
Acenaphthylene |
3,24 |
2,76 |
|
Еricyclic aromatics |
2,26 |
1,18 |
|
Total |
100 |
100 |
Heating oil is used in stationary steam boilers and industrial furnaces. It is also used as fuel in marine power plants. In agriculture, heating oil is used in forage preparation, also in food preservation in canning and drying of fruit and grain.