High-Pressure Behavior of Intermediate Fuel Oils

Intermediate fuel oils (IFOs) are frequently used as a carburant for ship engines. To achieve the desired viscosity specification, marine fuels are often produced by blending heavy residua and other refinery byproduct with distillate gas oil (MGO). The effects of both pressure and temperature on the bulk modulus and other physicochemical properties of light petroleum diesel fuels and biodiesel fuels have been extensively studied. On the contrary, less attention has been devoted to the study of the bulk modulus and viscous properties of heavier petroleum fuels, such as IFO grades. The overall objective of this work was to model the temperature-pressure-viscosity dependence of common IFOs as a function of their molecular parameters. With this aim, the temperature-pressure-dependence of the bulk modulus was modeled from pressure-volume-temperature (PVT) data, using the Murnaghan equation of state. Finally, using both rheological and PVT data, the Fillers-Moonan-Tschoegl (FMT) equation was used for modeling the pressure-temperature-viscosity behavior of these fuel oils.