EMULSIFICATION CHARACTERISTICS OF MARINE FUEL OILS WITH WATER

The effects of water-to-oil ratio, surfactant content, stayed time, an d homogenizing speed on the emulsification characteristics of emulsion activity, emulsion stability, and mean micro-water-droplets diameter for a light distillate fuel oil and a heavy residual fuel oil are expe rimentally investigated. It is revealed that after centrifuging, the e mulsion of the distillate fuel separates into four distinct layers fro m top to bottom of a test tube. Also, an emulsion of the distillate fu el oil emulsified with surfactant Span 20 is shown to have more fluctu ating variations of emulsion activity and mean diameter of water dropl ets with homogenizing speed. A saturated state of the emulsion with th e surfactant addition appears as the surfactant content = 1.5 to 2.0%. Higher surfactant content than 2% is shown to deteriorate the emulsif ication characteristics of these fuel oils. In addition, the residual fuel oil is found to have better emulsification characteristics in com parison with the distillate fuel oil.