Abstract
A tendency towards lower quality of marine residual fuel oil (MFO) has been observed due to the steep rise in crude oil costs, increased upgrading of petroleum refining technology and so on. A particular problem involving diesel engines is the deterioration of the combustion quality of MFO. However, there is no international standard regarding ignitability and/or combustibility of MFO at the current moment. Therefore, fuel oil suppliers do not need to pay attention about ignitability and combustibility in the refinement process of crude oil with which MFO is made.Energy Institute (EI) had standardized the method of testing ignition and combustion characteristics of MFO by using constant volume combustion chamber such as Fuel Combustion Analyzer (FCA) in 2006. However, a technical evaluation method concerning the ignition and combustion quality of MFO has not been established yet. And, it is not made clear when such an evaluation method is reflected in the actual international standard.Consequently, the paper presents an investigation result of recent trend of the ignitability and combustibility and general properties of 524 cases of actual MFO samples measured by the international standard test method using FCA. And further describes the relationships among combustion quality, general properties and engine problems.
