Viscosity of fuel

Contamination of fuel with high-viscosity products or operation at excessively low temperatures can increase the viscosity of fuel and result in fuel pumping problems. Also, if diesel fuel viscosity at 0°F (-17.8°C) is greater than 45 cSt, fuel pumping problems are likely to occur. 

Mild (880-920°F) heating at 50-200 psig Reduce viscosity of fuel oil Low conversion (10%) to 430°F Heated coil or drum Delayed coking... 

Purpose to reduce viscosity of fuel oil to acceptable levels Conversion is not a prime purpose... 

FIGURE 6.26 Approximate viscosity of fuel oil at various temperatures. 

Liquid viscosity is usually measured by the amount of time it takes for a given volume of liquid to flow through an orifice. The Saybolt universal viscometer is the most widely used device in the United States for the determination of the viscosity of fuel oils and liquids. It should be stressed that Saybolt viscosities, which are expressed in Saybolt seconds SSU), are not even approximately proportional to absolute viscosities except in the range above 200 SSU hence, converting units fiom Saybolt seconds to other units requires the use of special conversion tables. As the... 

Melting Points, Heat Capacities, and Equations for Density AND Viscosity of Fuel Bearing Salts... 

For a long time the official specifications for diesel fuel set only a mciximum viscosity of 9.5 mm /s at 20°C. Henceforth, a range of 2.5 mm /s minimum to 4.5 mm /s maximum has been set no longer for 20°C but at 40°C which seems to be more representative of injection pump operation. Except for special cases such as very low temperature very fluid diesel fuel and very heavy products, meeting the viscosity standards is not a major problem in refining. 

Applied to vacuum residue, its purpose is to reduce the viscosity of the feedstock to a maximum so as to minimize the addition of light diluents for production of fuel-oil for industrial uses. 

Diesel fuel kinematic viscosity is measured by ASTM D445, and is reported in units of mm /s at 40°C. Desired viscosity is a function of fuel grade and ranges from a minimum of 1.3 mm /s for 1-D to a maximum of 24 mm /s for 4-D. 

Visbreaking. Viscosity breaking (reduction) is a mild cracking operation used to reduce the viscosity of residual fuel oils and residua (8). The process, evolved from the older and now obsolete thermal cracking processes, is classed as mild because the thermal reactions are not allowed to proceed to completion. 

Refractive Index. The effect of mol wt (1400-4000) on the refractive index (RI) increment of PPG in ben2ene has been measured (167). The RI increments of polyglycols containing aUphatic ether moieties are negative drj/dc (mL/g) = —0.055. A plot of RI vs 1/Af is linear and approaches the value for PO itself (109). The RI, density, and viscosity of PPG—salt complexes, which maybe useful as polymer electrolytes in batteries and fuel cells have been measured (168). The variation of RI with temperature and salt concentration was measured for complexes formed with PPG and some sodium and lithium salts. Generally, the RI decreases with temperature, with the rate of change increasing as the concentration increases. 

Tank settling as a means of contaminant removal is not very efficient with fuels having the viscosity of kerosene. It is common practice to design tanks with cone-down drains and floating suctions to facilitate water and solids removal. 

The increase in fuel viscosity with temperature decrease is shown for several fuels in Figure 9. The departure from linearity as temperatures approach the pour point illustrates the non-Newtonian behavior created by wax matrices. The freezing point appears before the curves depart from linearity. It is apparent that the low temperature properties of fuel are closely related to its distillation range as well as to hydrocarbon composition. Wide-cut fuels have lower viscosities and freezing points than kerosenes, whereas heavier fuels used in ground turbines exhibit much higher viscosities and freezing points. 

Low temperature viscosities have an important influence on fuel atomisation and they affect engine starting. Cycloparaffinic and aromatic fuels reach unacceptably high viscosities at low temperatures. A kinematic viscosity of 35 mm /s (=cSt) represents the practical upper limit for pumps on aircraft, whereas much higher limits are acceptable for ground iastaHations. 

Viscosity is a measure of the resistance to flow and is important in the design of fuel pumping systems. 

With heavy fuels, the ambient temperature and the fuel type must be considered. Even at warm environmental temperatures, the high viscosity of the residual could require fuel preheating or blending. If the unit is planned for operation in extremely cold regions, the heavier distillates could become too viscous. Fuel system requirements limit viscosity to 20 centi-stokes at the fuel nozzles. 

Visbreaking is a mild thermal cracking process that reduces the viscosity of heavy fuel oils and reduces the amount of low-viscosity blending stocks that must be added to the heavy residuals to meet viscosity specifications of the specific heavy fuel oil. The amount of heavy fuel oil production by a refinery is reduced by 20—30 percent if a visbreaker is used. The refinery profitability is improved with visbreaker operation, because heavy fuel oils are low value products. 

Poor vaporization of the fuel will also produce oil dilution. Generally, this fuel will be driven off when the engine becomes warm and is mnning at optimum conditions. However, severe dilution of the oil by fuel could have serious results, as the viscosity of the oil will be reduced to an unacceptable level. 

Heavy fuel oils must be heated to provide a suitably low viscosity for delivery to the burner and for atomization. The viscosity of oils at the burner typically should be between 100 and 150 Saybolt Seconds Universal (SSU). 

Paraffin crystalline waxes Apart from asphaltenes, a number of differing molecular weight paraffinic waxes are also present. These progressively crystallize at lowering temperatures (their respective pour points). These waxes increase friction and resistance to flow, so that the viscosity of the fuel is raised. This type of problem is controlled by the use of pour-point depressants (viscosity improvers), which limit the growth of the crystals at their nucleation sites within the fuel. They also have a dispersing effect. 

Figure 28. Isotherms of the shear viscosities of (Li, Na)2C03. (Reprinted from Y. Sato, T. Yamamura, H. Zhu, M. Endo, T. Yamazaki, H. Kato, and T. Ejima, Viscosities of Alkali Carbonate Melts for MCFC, in Carbonate Fuel Cell Technology, D. Shores, H. Mam, I. Uchida, and J. R. Selman, eds., p. 427, Fig. 9, 1993. Reproduced by permission of the Electrochemical Society, Inc.)...

The viscosities of water and gasoline increase with decreasing temperature. Gasoline has lower viscosity than water, and fuel and crude oil have a much higher viscosity that increases dramatically when temperature decreases.32 The ease with which a fluid pours is an indication of its viscosity. It is observed that cold oil has a high viscosity and pours very slowly. The viscosity properties of various potential pollutants are discussed in Section 18.9. 

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