OFTEC Heating Oil Project – Bio-Liquids

For the production of new bio-liquid compatible equipment such as boilers, burners and oil tanks, as well as the conversion of existing installations and equipment, it is vitally important and necessary that the properties of the fuel to be combusted are not only known but are consistent in supply.

To establish this, a bio-liquid fuel project was undertaken by OFTEC and its members in partnership with Carbon Connections, University of East Angia, ICOM Energy Association and Clean Energy Consultancy. The project involved extensive research including live trials held at various domestic and comercial sites, all of which were closely monitored and the equipment analysed over a 12 month period. In short, no problems were encountered and the results obtained proved positive in confirming that a mixture of FAME and kerosene or FAME and gas oil can be successfully used as a replacement fuel to reduce carbon emissions.

A number of different bio-liquids blends were tested, with B30K (30% FAME and 70% kerosene) chosen to be the most favourable blend used amongst domestic oil users. This is predominately due to the ease in which existing equipment can be successfully converted and it’s convenience given that the majority of flue systems are low level discharge.