The base of heating oil production are the diesel fractions of rerun distillation. Waste oil is another alternative.
When heating oil is made of diesel fractions, the product is dark with low flashpoint. To increase it, special additives, made of vinyl acetate and ethylene, are used. The product is widely used in stationary heating systems.
Another alternative is heavy fuel oil, a dark-brown viscous liquid. Performance parameters of this fuel depend on the crude oil which it was made from. The main areas of HFO application are heating units and ships. Gearbox oil can sometimes be used as heating fuel, however, this substance is made mostly for automobile lubrication.
Special advanced equipment is required for the production of heating oil. After the process the product must be stored in air tight containers preventing evaporation and ensuring preservation of all performance characteristics.
The performance of heating fuel is similar to diesel, but there are distinctions. For one, heating oil contains contaminants and organic compounds. This is due to the lack of strict requirements to product quality, allowing to save on extra purification. This makes fuel oil one of the cheapest and most available oil products.
Among the advantages of fuel oil are:
- no specific odor when burning;
- low freezing point (up to -28 ºС);
- good flow characteristics;
- high calorific value;
- economic efficiency.