What is the difference between fuel oil and diesel?
2 Answers
The differences between fuel oil and diesel are: 1. Different properties: Fuel oil is mainly made from cracked residue oil and straight-run residue oil of petroleum; Diesel is mainly blended from diesel fractions produced through processes such as crude oil distillation, catalytic cracking, thermal cracking, hydrocracking, and petroleum coking. 2. Different characteristics: Fuel oil is characterized by high viscosity and contains a large amount of non-hydrocarbon compounds, colloids, and asphaltenes; Diesel is characterized by high energy density and low fuel consumption rate. 3. Different applications: In the power industry, fuel oil is mainly used for fuel power generation, heating units, and as ignition, combustion-supporting, and flame-stabilizing oil for coal-fired units. In the steel industry, fuel oil is mainly used for heating furnaces, self-provided power plant generation and heating, and refractory materials. Diesel is mainly used as the power source for tractors, large vehicles, diesel locomotives, as well as in civil engineering, excavators, loaders, fishing boats, diesel generator sets, and agricultural machinery. It serves as the fuel for diesel engines in diesel vehicles, tractors, etc.
I often drive diesel trucks for long distances, and the difference between diesel and fuel oil is quite significant. Diesel is a light fuel, refined cleanly with low viscosity, suitable for efficient combustion in engines, providing strong power; fuel oil is thick like syrup, classified as heavy oil, used in ships or industrial boilers for heating. Once I saw a gas station mix them up and mistakenly added fuel oil to my vehicle, causing the fuel injectors to clog, resulting in repair costs over a thousand. Diesel has extremely low sulfur content, meeting high environmental standards, with clean exhaust; fuel oil has high sulfur content, producing heavy smoke when burned, polluting the environment. In terms of price, fuel oil is cheaper wholesale but requires heating equipment for storage and is prone to rust; diesel is slightly more expensive at retail but easier to store and saves energy. Personally, I think cars should only use diesel, leaving fuel oil for large machinery.
