natural gas vs. fuel oil 2

[pabasolo]

I am at the moment trying to decide wheter we should use natural gas or fuel oil for our furnaces
The thing is, that here in Uruguay, the price of natural gas doubles that of fuel oil, for the same amount of heat (theoretical). Nevertheless, many companies have switched ti natural gas, and many people think it is the best choice. So I think there must be some costs, benefits, etc that Im not considering
Can anyone please tell me which costs, or inefficiencies or advantages/disadvantages should I consider?
thnks
Pablo

 

[25362]

See thread633-56974.

 

[Combustor1]

Pabasolo,

If Oil is cheaper then first are we talking No. 2 oil or heavier? If heavier then you will need to heat it before you burn it. This can be a maintenance problem and will have more initial upfront costs - oil heaters, heat tracing and insulation. Also each burner manufacturer will require different atomizing equipment to burn any oil - No. 2 or heavier - usually steam or compressed air or hight combustion blower pressure - sometimes high oil pressure - all come at a premium - so we are getting closer to the cost of firing gas.

If you are using compressed air it might have to be heated to 200F if you are burning heavy oil (no. 4, 6 or bunker) typical.

Consider operting costs of oil pumps, heaters, atomizer media and maintenance to keep it all going.

Good Luck!

 

[pabasolo]

Thanks to all
You have been extremely helpful!
bye

 

[Aurel]

I red the opinions before, I think that a problem is the temperature of exhaust gases before the stack. It's possible to appear the corrosion at the ducts as fuel oil has a percent of S(Sulphum)-1% to 4.5%, depending of the source.

 

[McMoe]

Many companies use natural gas and oil redundantly. It seems that economically as a fuel supply they can balance each other to provide the best economic dispatch of fuel. Natural Gas is cleaner burning, so if pollutants are a problem this may provide an advantage. Also natual gas as transported in a pipeline can provide a more constant source without the bother of fuel shipping, delivery and storage. I don't know that much about oil quality, but natural gas does have component quality issues that should be monitored. Things to consider are Btu content, H2S and Carbon dioxide which can cause corrosion if combined with water and C6+ components can cause other problems, but if you have a good pipeline quality gas source natural gas is the better fuel choice in my opinion.