Abstract:

The mixture of vacuum residue, heavy vacuum gas oil (heavy VGO) and ethylene tar from Liaoyang Petrochemical Co.was used as marine fuel. The kinematic viscosity of the prepared marine fuel meets the standard of RMG380 and RME180, respectively when the ratio of vacuum residue:heavy VGO:ethylene tar is 5:2:3 and 3:4:3. To make full use of high viscosity vacuum residue and to improve its stability, the blending marine fuel with ratio of 5:3:2 was chosen to test the effect of micro-emulsified viscosity reduction agents. The experiments show that the complex viscosity reducer consisted of mixed JM agent and propylene glycol block polyether L61 can reduce the viscosity of the blending fuel from 520.5 mm2/s to 334.1 mm2/s. Meanwhile, no layered structure is observed in 90 days when the antioxidant 264 is added in the blending fuel and the viscosity of the final fuel is 348.9 mm2/s, meet the standard of RMG380. The cost of the method is 21.28% lower than that with other oil-soluble viscosity reducing methods.

Key words: blending, marine fuel oil, viscosity, viscosity reduction by micro-emulsification