Article
Article
Fuel oil
Article By:
Siegmund, C. W. Exxon Research and Engineering Company, Linden, New Jersey.
Last reviewed:November 2019
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.274400
Any of the petroleum products which are less volatile than gasoline and are burned in furnaces, boilers, or other types of heaters. The two primary classes of fuel oils are distillate and residual. Distillate fuel oils are composed entirely of material which has been vaporized in a refinery distillation tower. Consequently, they are clean, free of sediment, relatively low in viscosity, and free of inorganic ash. Residual fuel oils contain fractions which cannot be vaporized by heating. These fractions are black and viscous and include any inorganic ash components which are in the crude. In some cases, whole crude is used as a residual fuel.
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