Fuel Oil Vs High Speed Diesel (HSD) for hot oil package

[Suresh Thevan]

Hi

I have a Lube oil blending plant that requires heating of certain raw materials based on the properties of fluid and the process involved. Hot oil is used as the heating medium to cater these various heating requirements in the plant.
a)Base oil dehydration
b)Additive heating – to reduce viscosity of fluid
c)Heating to blenders (ABB)

As part of the hot oil package to include but not limited to the following :
1) Fired heater
2) Blower, if applicable
3) Burner
4) Thermic fluid (TF) circulation pumps
5) TF make up pump
6) TF dump tank and pump
7) HSD day tank
8) HSD day tank pump
9) HSD filter, if required
10) Expansion tank
11) Chimney
12) Required instrumentation and control system for the package
13) Interconnecting piping.

My question are ,
1) For the item 7 would it be better to consider Fuel Oil instead of High Speed Diesel (HSD) for the Hot oil furnace?
2) Where can I read up on the Pros Vs Cons on Fuel Oil & HSD?

 

[LittleInch]

Fuel Oil comes in many grades from thick and gloopy to barely liquid tar.

FO tends to need to be heated to get it to flow properly so you would need a tank heater and a fuel heater.

More importantly the burners and air volume need to be matched to the fuel type to make it burn properly, not soot up your heater in a day and also meet whatever local emissions requirements you have.

HFO tends to be used for large scale amounts of heating as it isn't easy to transport and store. so first make sure you can get a reliable supply. You will always be able to get diesel, but HFO??

But it is cheaper than diesel so you need to do a cost comparison for the two and see if you make your money back. If you're bidding this then you need to proivide both options to the vendor and also provide which grade of "fuel Oil" you intend to use.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[georgeverghese]

If you are contemplating using high sulphur FO since it is much cheaper, consider the following potential implications : (a) wet H2S corrosion on hot oil heater economiser bank (b)environmental effects on the neighbouring areas from the high SO2 content in the flue gas.
HO fired heater burner turdown should match the min heating demand of the consumer network the HO supply serves. If there is a mismatch, you may either select an additional auxiliary low demand burner or install an excess heat dump cooler in the HO supply network.