[en] Chemical dispersibility of heavy bunker fuel oil, which historically has been characterized as not dispersible, was studied, using the well-known SINTEF methodology for evaluating the dispersibility of fresh and weathered oils. Several heavy fuel oils, specifically IFO-380 fuel oils, were involved in the study. Corexit 9500, which has been shown to be effective for viscous and weathered oils, was used as the dispersant. Results indicated that in many cases heavy fuel oils are dispersible, and that viscosity and dispersant dosage are particularly important factors. As a general rule, more viscous and weathered oils were found to require longer time for the dispersion process to occur. The standard SINTEF laboratory effectiveness test, particularly the 60-minute extended -time MNS tests, have been found to be very useful in characterizing heavy fuel oil dispersibility. 17 refs., 5 tabs., 1 fig

[en] The impact that tanker ships have left on the marine ecosystem on Newfoundland's south coast was discussed. Tankers and container ships have sometimes discharged leftover bunker-C fuel before entering the St. Lawrence Seaway to save on cleaning services. It is estimated that 60,000 to 100,000 of the 30 million seabirds which reside or migrate through the ecological reserve around St. Mary's Bay, die each year from the effects of oil. Victims are mostly puffins, seagulls and murres. This paper discussed the involvement of the Canadian Coast Guard in the Prevention of Oiled Wildlife (POW) project. POW has compared British Columbia's shipping practices with those of Newfoundland. Although crude oil shipments along the B.C. coast exceed 250 million barrels annually, seabirds are not being oiled by passing tankers. It was suggested that in order to change attitudes in Atlantic waters, the maximum fine of $1 million against offenders should be imposed. So far, the highest penalty levied by Transport Canada has been $30,000. It was argued that this is not a significant deterrent for most polluters

[en] In response to a Presidential request, this study examines how the distillate fuel oil market (and related energy markets) in the Northeast behaved in the winter of 1999-2000, explains the role played by residential, commercial, industrial, and electricity generation sector consumers in distillate fuel oil markets and describes how that role is influenced by the structure of tie energy markets in the Northeast. In addition, this report explores the potential for nonresidential users to move away from distillate fuel oil and how this might impact future prices, and discusses conversion of distillate fuel oil users to other fuels over the next 5 years. Because the President's and Secretary's request focused on converting factories and other large-volume users of mostly high-sulfur distillate fuel oil to other fuels, transportation sector use of low-sulfur distillate fuel oil is not examined here

[en] Highlights: • Short-term embryonic exposure of cod three different marine fuel oils. • AhR-, and angio- and osteogenesis gene batteries were studied in relation to phenotypic outcomes. • Comparable toxicological response trends observed for heavy fuel oil and low sulphur containing distillate fuel oils. • Effects on hatching and larvae morphology displayed higher sensitivity than molecular effects. Due to the heavy fuel oil (HFO) ban in Arctic maritime transport and new legislations restricting the sulphur content of fuel oils, new fuel oil types are continuously developed. However, the potential impacts of these new fuel oil types on marine ecosystems during accidental spills are largely unknown. In this study, we studied the toxicity of three marine fuel oils (two marine gas oils with low sulphur contents and a heavy fuel oil) in early life stages of cod (Gadus morhua). Embryos were exposed for 4 days to water-soluble fractions of fuel oils at concentrations ranging from 4.1 - 128.3 µg TPAH/L, followed by recovery in clean seawater until 17 days post fertilization. Exposure to all three fuel oils resulted in developmental toxicity, including severe morphological changes, deformations and cardiotoxicity. To assess underlying molecular mechanisms, we studied fuel oil-mediated activation of aryl hydrocarbon receptor (Ahr) gene battery and genes related to cardiovascular, angiogenesis and osteogenesis pathways. Overall, our results suggest comparable mechanisms of toxicity for the three fuel oils. All fuel oils caused concentration-dependant increases of cyp1a mRNA which paralleled ahrr, but not ahr1b transcript expression. On the angiogenesis and osteogenesis pathways, fuel oils produced concentration-specific transcriptional effects that were either increasing or decreasing, compared to control embryos. Based on the observed toxic responses, toxicity threshold values were estimated for individual endpoints to assess the most sensitive molecular and physiological effects, suggesting that unresolved petrogenic components may be significant contributors to the observed toxicity.

[en] Due to the high costs of the combust oils (fuel oil 6) used in generators of vapor and in other treatments, makes important consider the use of preservatives that improve the operation of the units from the operative point of view and of environmental control. The author enumerates several of the problems of corrosion, of efficiency in the combustion and of thermal efficiency; in a same way it enumerates several useful preservatives, to be used in residual fuel

[en] Long-run adjustments in petroleum consumption are not only larger than short-run adjustments. They may also be motivated by entirely different price events. This analysis shows that new price peaks have both short-run and long-run consumption responses, a result that is starkly different than price changes that track previous price paths. It also establishes significant trend effects where gasoline and residual fuel oil consumption decline over time. The analysis explores these adjustments by establishing long-run cointegrating relationships for different petroleum product groupings. An important implication is that price increases above historical levels may be providing substantially greater incentives for significant long-run demand adjustments than would be the case otherwise. (author)

[en] This is the PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2002 NATIONAL OILHEAT RESEARCH ALLIANCE TECHNOLOGY SYMPOSIUM, which was Held at Oilheat Visions Conference, Rhode Island Convention Center, Providence, Rhode Island, August 20-21, 2002. The specific objectives of this conference are to: (1) identify and evaluate the current state-of-the-art and recommend new initiatives for higher efficiency, a cleaner environment, and to satisfy consumer needs cost-effectively, reliably, and safely; and (2) foster cooperative interactions among federal and industrial representatives for the common goal of sustained economic growth and energy security via energy conservation

[en] This paper examines the price reversibility of OECD non-transport oil demand and its components: residual (heavy) fuel oil, non-transport distillates and other non-transport oil products. Our purpose is to determine the extent to which the reductions in demand following the oil price increases of the 1970s have been - and will be - reversed by the price cuts of the 1980s. The analysis is based on an econometric model which utilizes price decomposition methods to measure separately the effects of price increases and price decreases. These methods allow empirical testing of irreversibility and hysteresis, and should be applicable in other areas of economics where asymmetry of response or persistence of effect are evident. Based on the statistical evidence, we reject the conventional specification of demand being perfectly price reversible. We conclude that the response to the price cuts of the 1980s has been significantly smaller than to the price increases of the 1970s. Demand has followed a ratchet process: price increases reduced demand substantially when demanders conserved and switched away from oil, but price cuts did not reverse this process completely, if at all. This has important implications for projections of oil demand, especially under low price assumptions: the OECD's dependency on oil will not increase as much as some analysts may have feared. There is, however, another aspect of imperfect price reversibility: the possibilities of adjusting to future price rises may not be as great as they have been in the past. The easiest and least costly demand savings have already been made, and oil has been replaced by other energy sources in many uses: what's done is done. (author)

[en] This project was carried out under the responsibility of the Strategy -Economics - Program Division of the Institut Francais du Petrole. The goal was the short-term (12 months) forecasting of the demand with regard to the four leading petroleum products in France - gas oil (GO), automotive fuel (CA), home heating oil (FOD) and heavy fuel oil (FL). It was decided to test an original method (1) and to compare it with the widely used Box and Jenkins method (2), which gives good results for the GO and CA series but which proves disappointing for the FOD and FL series. This study is in two parts: (1) the first part describes the original method by breaking it down into trends and seasonality, with the model being additive or multiplicative. We improved its performances by using the theory of the Weiner filter. (2) The second part concerns Box and Jenkins modeling. This model was used on the unprocessed series and then on the series corrected for the influence of working days with the help of the ''Census X11'' de-seasoning program. For each method, the principal phases are described for the modeling of gas oil on the French domestic market. For the other products, only the principal results are given, i.e. structure of the model retained, matching with reality, reliability of forecasts. (Author). 5 refs., 7 tabs., 3 annexes

[en] Steel industries use refined carbon as an alloy for steel production. This alloy is produced from waste carbon from the distillation of the petroleum. The refined carbon, called recarburizer, is obtained by calcination at high temperature. Under these thermal conditions the organic molecules decompose and a fraction of the N₂, S and H₂, volatile material and moisture are released; while the carbon tends to develop a crystalline structure similar to graphite's. The right combination of calcinations temperature and time in the furnace can optimize the quality of the resulting product. The content of S and N₂ has to be minimized for the use of calcined carbon in the steel industry. Nitrogen content should be reduced by two orders of magnitude, from 1% - 2% down to hundreds of ppm by weight. This work describes the activities undertaken to obtain calcined coke from petroleum from crude oil carbon that satisfies the requirements of the Mercosur standard 02:00-169 (Pending) for use as a carborizer in steels industries. To satisfy the requirements of the Mercosur standards NM 236:00 IRAM-IAS-NM so that graphite is used as a carburizer a content of 300 ppm maximum weight of nitrogen has to be obtained. So the first stage in this development is to define a production process for supplying calcined coke in the range of nitrogen concentrations required by the Mercosur standards (CW)