An Overview of Residential Heating Fuel Quality: Interim Report

The quality of middle distillates, including No. 2 fuel oil, has been a topic of growing interest amongst the residential heating fuel industry. Fuel problems related to poor cold weather handling characteristics, sludge buildup in storage tanks, microbiological proliferation, and increased service needs of fuel delivery components are cited as too frequent occurrences each heating season. Some concerns have also been expressed that the quality of fuel received downstream of the refinery lacked any consistency. This places into question the practical usefulness of current ASTM fuel oil specifications, which give very wide latitude to what can lawfully be sold as grade No. 2 fuel oil. Additional fuel quality changes may also arise in the future as a result of proposed legislations to desulphurize on-highway diesel fuels. This would impact directly on residential heating fuels by shifting increased levels of sulphur and aromatics to No. 2 fuel oil. The strong interest in these issues, heightened by the likelihood that fuel quality may decrease in the future, formed the basis for a new study within BNL's Combustion Equipment Technology program in the area of Fuels, Fuel Quality, and Storage. The goal of this project will be to provide a background of information for future actions by the industry to deal with problems that relate to the fuel, thus ensuring proper and efficient operation of the heating equipment in which it is to be used. The current objectives of the study are as follows: to present a broad view of factors that have brought about changes in distillate fuel quality, to identify the range of problems and concerns with No. 2 fuel oil amongst the oil heat industry, to examine trends in fuel oil property variations, and to develop guidelines for minimizing or resolving some of the most common problems related to fuel quality changes. 26 refs., 32 figs., 2 tabs.