The biggest problem of nowadays is that people have never thought that fuel and power resources are at risk of becoming depleted. Future generations may pay a high price for such wastefulness of their ancestors.
Heavy fuel oil enjoys a wide application in housing maintenance and utility.
It is difficult to find a boiler house that does not use this dark brown substance to produce heat.
One of the major benefits of heavy fuel oil is its high energy value: 1 kilogram of such substance is able to produce 9150 kilocalories of heat while burning. If to compare diesel fuel and heavy fuel oil, used for house heating, the latter is proved to be much cheaper. Viscosity is considered to be one of the essential performance characteristics of heavy fuel oil and depends on the heating temperature. The fuel oil consumption rate is measured at 80-100ºC/176- 212ºF.
Heavy fuel oil should be pre-warmed because its high viscosity doesn’t allow it to be applied immediately. It is warmed up by hot steam, but there may be negative consequences as condensed steam may get into the heavy oil fuel and hamper the burning process. As a result, the amount of heat being generated is significantly reduced.
Therefore, much fuel is needed to compensate the losses which will result in significant financial expenditures. As this method has no chance of success, there should be found another way out. A method of sedimentation is often used to separate water from oil products. Though this method is considered very effective, it doesn’t work in cases with heavy fuel oil. The water is difficult to separate from the oil product since its density is the same as that of heavy fuel oil. But even in summer, some water may get into the fuel when stored for a long time.
Fuel oil emulsion however, has become an optimal solution to many problems.
The main problem is that it is very difficult to make the obtained substance finely-divided and stable. Therefore, GlоbeCоre has developed the USB unit that is designed to make finely-divided and high-stable emulsions, based on liquid oil products (heavy fuel oil, diesel oil) and water (pure or waste waters, sream).
Heavy fuel oil efficiency is achieved due to its emulsification in the USB unit. As a result, the efficiency of the boiler unit is increased as well and provided by such factors as:
(1) water is evenly distributed through the whole substance;
(2) fragmentation and incineration of substance inside the furnace are provided by low fanning blast, eliminating the risk of underburnings;
(3) the emulsion droplets are grinded down in the furnace; and
(4) stack gasses heat recovery;
The fuel oil emulsion gives the possibility of reducing by two times the smoke emissions and three to four times the carbon black emissions. The benefits of fuel oil emulsion application are given below.
The advantages of fuel oil emulsion
Table 1
| Factors that may contribute to fuel oil saving | Percentage of fuel oil saving |
| The emulsification of water, contained in the heavy fuel oil, supplied for burning | up to 2% |
| Reduction of the excess air ration in furnace by 0.1 | 0.7% |
| Reduction in temperature of stack gases by 10°С / 50°F | 0.6% |
| Reduction in temperature of feed water, heated in the unit-type economizer by 10 °C / 50°F | 1.6% |
| Reduction in temperature of feed water that enters the unit type economizer by 10 °C / 50°F | 0.24% |
| Carbon back emissions reduction | up to 0.2% |
| clean heat-exchange surfaces of boiler | up to 2% |
| Reduction in temperature of fuel oil heating by 30 °C / 86 °F | up to 1% |
| Substitution of steam-atomizing injectors by mechanical atomizing injectors | up to 1% |
| Maintaining the efficiency of the heat unit while operating at 75% nominal capacity | 0.7% |
| Fuel loss due to evaporation of water, contained in emulsion | 0.8% |
| Possible total fuel savings (including fuel loss due to evaporation of water, contained in emulsion). | up to 10% |