Characterization of possible alternative materials for the production of marine fuels

Abstract

Maritime transport is a significant contributor to the environmental pollution. For this reason, the maximum sulfur content in liquid marine fuels has been drastically reduced since January 1st 2020 for deep sea areas. This reduction can be solved by diluting the conventional high sulfur fuels with suitable low sulfur components. However, mixing two or more components with each other carries a potential risk of incompatibility or instability of the final product, especially in the case of longer storage and subsequent transportation to the end consumers. For the above reasons, this work deals with the mapping of alternative raw materials that could be used to produce very low sulfur fuel oils (VLSFO) with a sulfur level up to 0.5 wt%. A total of 5 raw materials (1 conventional fuel oil – HSFO and 4 alternative raw materials) were characterized. The individual raw materials were compared to each other with regard to the quality properties required for marine fuels according to the ISO 8217. Subsequently, the suitability of these raw materials for further mixing was outlined in order to meet the required quality parameters for marine fuel mixing.