Petroleum fuels commercial

This category comprises conventional LPG (commercial propane and butane), home-heating oil and heavy fuels. All these materials are used to produce thermal energy in equipment whose size varies widely from small heaters or gas stoves to refinery furnaces. Without describing the requirements in detail for each combustion system, we will give the main specifications for each of the different petroleum fuels. 

Thermal expan sion of petroleum fuels can be estimated as volume change per unit volume per degree. ASTM-IP Petroleum Measurement Tables (ASTM D 1250 IP 200) are used for volume corrections in commercial transactions. 

The dual role of -hcxanc as a component of refined petroleum fuels and as a highly refined, specialized product for other end uses lead to complications in making estimates of actual production levels. For instance, no formal production statistics could be identified associated with the -hexane contained in heating or motor fuels. Since the late 1980s, no quantitative production figures have been available for those companies documented as producing appreciable amounts of -hexanc for commercial use (SRI 1988, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996). The following six facilities are currently documented as producers... 

Gulf intended to produce chiefly distillate fuel oil in the West Virginia plant. This is a low sulfur (less than 0.3 percent) nonpolluting fuel for the production of electrical power and steam in the eastern United States, where utilities and industry presently use natural petroleum fuel oil. Gulf claimed that a larger commercial-size plant processing 30,000 tons of coal daily would yield 60,000 barrels of distillate fuel oil or enough to meet the electrical demands of a city with one million inhabitants. 

Benzole]pyrene is produced from the combustion of tobacco and petroleum fuels. It also occurs in low octane gasoline (0.18-0.87 mg/kg), high octane gasoline (0.45-1.82 mg/kg), used motor oil (92.2-278.4 mg/kg), asphalt (<0.0052 wt %), coal tar pitch (<0.70 wt %), cigarette smoke (3 ig/l,000 cigarettes), and gasoline exhaust (quoted, Verschueren, 1983). Lehmann et al. (1984) reported a benzole]pyrene concentration of 0.02 mg/g in a commercial anthracene oil. 

This paper has been prepared as a summary of published information on these combustion-controlling additives, the petroleum fuels in which they are used, their specific functions and postulated mechanisms of operation, their commercial development, and future trends in their use. The literature on these subjects is almost as vast as the products are complex and can be barely touched upon in a single paper however, some of the basic references are included in the bibliography which is appended. The merits and economics of these materials have recently been discussed by several authorities (21, 33, 40-42). 

Petroleum fuels, or similar liquid fuels synthesized from natural gas, coal, oil shales, and tar sands, will continue to have great commercial significance so long as fluidity is an important fuel asset, and that is likely to be for a very long time indeed. Just as alloys are often better than their simple metallic constituents, so petroleum fuels fortified by additives are often superior to the basic products themselves. 

The ability of the Argonne catalyst to reform several types of hydrocarbons suggested that this catalyst would be able to reform commercial petroleum fuels. However, commercial fuels offer additional challenges to reforming. Gasoline and diesel fuels both contain sulfur,... 

Combustion tests of fuel oil blends derived from the Exxon Donor Solvent (EDS) process were carried out in a laboratory 50 hp test boiler and a commercial 1425 hp boiler. All tests showed that coal derived fuel oils burn cleanly compared to petroleum fuels with low levels of smoke and particulates. Emissions of N0X were related to fuel nitrogen content for both the petroleum and coal-derived fuels. 

The work reported here was carried out in two phases. The first phase was conducted in a laboratory test boiler to determine the relative PNA emissions from a variety of EDS and petroleum fuels. The second phase of testing was conducted in a commercial boiler to determine the effect of unit size on PNA emissions. This testing was made possible by the start-up and operation of the Exxon Coal Liquefaction Pilot Plant (ECLP) which has a throughput of 250 tons per day and can produce approximately... 

Results of these tests are shown in Table IV. The average emissions values are shown for the coal-derived fuels. As previous testing has shown, the EDS fuel oils produced little particulate relative to the petroleum fuel, while the smoke values for the coal-derived materials were equal to or less than that of the RSFO. As with the laboratory testing, the N0X level was a function of the fuel nitrogen level, although N0X emissions from the commercial unit were lower than from the laboratory boiler. 

Emissions other than PNA showed similar trends in the laboratory and commercial boilers. Relative to petroleum fuel oils, EDS fuel oils produced low levels of particulate and smoke. N0X emissions were related to fuel N levels, although N0X emissions tended to be higher in the laboratory boiler than the commercial boiler. 

The technology for triglyceride production from microalgae has not yet been commercialized. Most of the economic analyses for the production of microalgal liquids reported in the literature indicate they are much too expensive to compete with petroleum fuels. Considerable additional research must be carried out to perfect the process despite the fact that research on microalgal fuel production has been in progress for at least the past two decades. 

Biocatalysis and biomaterials are dynamic areas of research that have continued to attract a lot of attention. Developments in these areas are largely fueled by demands for sustainable technologies, a desire to decrease our dependence on petroleum, and commercial opportunities to develop green products. Publications and patents in these fields continue to grow as more people are involved in research and commercial activities. 

Finally, alternative sources of energy continue to be the subject of intense development efforts to overcome their inabihty to compete with conventional sources on an unsubsidized basis. Fuel cells have been held out as having significant potential for replacing motor fuel, the largest single end use for petroleum, although commercialization is at least five years away, even with subsidies. Other, more modest scale, fuel cell power applications may have more immediate promise. 

JB Cooper, KL Wise, J Groves, WT Welch. Determination of octane number and Reid vapor pressure of commercial petroleum fuels using FT-Raman spectroscopy and partial least squares regression analysis. Anal Chem 67 4096-4100, 1995. 

Shale Oil. In the United States, shale oil, or oil derivable from oil shale, represents the largest potential source of Hquid hydrocarbons that can be readily processed to fuel Hquids similar to those derived from natural petroleum. Some countries produce Hquid fuels from oil shale. There is no such industry in the United States although more than 50 companies were producing oil from coal and shale in the United States in 1860 (152,153), and after the oil embargo of 1973 several companies reactivated shale-oil process development programs (154,155). Petroleum supply and price stabiHty has since severely curtailed shale oil development. In addition, complex environmental issues (156) further prohibit demonstration of commercial designs. 

In 1987 nonmotor fuel uses of butanes represented ca 16% of the total consumption. Liquid petroleum gas (LPG) is a mixture of butane and propane, typically in a ratio of 60 40 butane—propane however, the butane content can vary from 100 to 50% and less (see Liquefied petroleum gas). LPG is consumed as fuel in engines and in home, commercial, and industrial appHcations. Increasing amounts of LPG and butanes are used as feedstocks for substitute natural gas (SNG) plants (see Fuels, synthetic). / -Butane, propane, and isobutane are used alone or in mixture as hydrocarbon propellents in aerosols (qv). 

Hexane refers to the straight-chain hydrocarbon, C H branched hydrocarbons of the same formula are isohexanes. Hexanes include the branched compounds, 2-methylpentane, 3-methylpentane, 2,2-dimethylbutane, 2,3-dimethylbutane, and the straight-chain compound, / -hexane. Commercial hexane is a narrow-boiling mixture of these compounds with methylcyclopentane, cyclohexane, and benzene (qv) minor amounts of and hydrocarbons also may be present. Hydrocarbons in commercial hexane are found chiefly in straight-mn gasoline which is produced from cmde oil and natural gas Hquids (see Gasoline AND OTHER MOTOR fuels Gas,natural). Smaller volumes occur in certain petroleum refinery streams. 

Many commercial gases are generated by burning hydrocarbons (qv) eg, natural gas or propanes, in air (see Gas, natural Liquified petroleum gas). The combustion process, especially the amount of air used, determines the gas composition. For a given fuel-to-air ratio, the gas composition can be used to determine the water vapor content required to achieve a desired equiUbrium carbon content of the austenite (see Combustiontechnology). 

Naphthenic acids occur ia a wide boiling range of cmde oil fractions, with acid content increa sing with boiling point to a maximum ia the gas oil fraction (ca 325°C). Jet fuel, kerosene, and diesel fractions are the source of most commercial naphthenic acid. The acid number of the naphthenic acids decreases as heavier petroleum fractions are isolated, ranging from 255 mg KOH/g for acids recovered from kerosene and 170 from diesel, to 108 from heavy fuel oil (19). The amount of unsaturation as indicated by iodine number also increases in the high molecular weight acids recovered from heavier distillation cuts. 

---