GPL and Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO)

Nov 08, 2019 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

In my opinion, GPL are misleading us by saying that some of their generating sets are not achieving the expected output when they have to burn light fuel oil (LFO) when heavy fuel oil (HFO), the heaviest of the residual fuel oils is not available.
Without getting too technical, and I know it sounds like a contradiction in terms, but of all the fuel oils available, HFO has the lowest calorific value. That means that the energy produced from a tonne of HFO is less than that produced from, say, a tonne of diesel oil (a much lighter fuel oil and properly described as a distillate fuel oil).
Therefore the generating sets should produce more output on lighter fuel oils, not less. Further, HFO has a high sulphur content and has not been used for decades in developed countries because of environmental regulations. So why burn it in Guyana? Probably because it’s about 30 percent cheaper than distillate fuel oils and that’s a big difference.
Yours faithfully
Robert Perks B.Sc. (Fuel Science)

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