ADDI T I V E S & T RE ATME N T S The Treatment
Changes in fuel oil lead to changes in additives and treatments BY S T EP HEN B E N NE T T
Ken Reardon, owner of Ken’s Oil and Burner Service, Inc. in Danvers Mass. who uses fuel oil additives from Wilmington, DE-based Fuel Right to treat a range of concerns.
F 18
UEL OIL IS UNDERGOING A MAKEOVER. MANY STATES HAVE low-sulfur and ultra-low sulfur fuel statutes coming into play in 2012, and some already have them. Further,
percentages of biofuel in fuel oil also seem likely to increase in the not-too-distant future. Will these developments dictate changes in the use of
fuel additives and treatments? Suppliers of additives and treatments, as well as a fuel oil dealer and a major producer of B100 had, as might be expected, differing takes on those issues. “Lower sulfur product is much more stable, so stabiliz-
ers become less important, all things being equal,” said Ed Burke, chairman of Dennis K. Burke, Inc., a fuel dealer in Chelsea, Mass.
AUGUST 2011 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www.fueloilnews.com
“The problem is ASTM has no oxidization stability standard
for heating oil and that’s sorely needed,” Burke added, referring to ASTM International, originally the American Society for Testing and Materials. When it comes to treating fuel oil, “I have a hard time with
additives [unless they come] from the refinery or the termi- nal,” Burke said. “Look at gasoline. The EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] legislated a certain amount of detergency in gasoline and then we were done. That’s how I’d like to see the [fuel oil market] go.” Bob Tatnall of Fairville Products, Wilmington, Del., which
markets Fuel Right additives for preventing sludge and corrosion, said “Ultra-low sulfur heating oil would be the best thing to hap- pen to the heating oil business in decades.”
