Fuel oil (also known as heavy oil, marine fuel, bunker, furnace oil, or gasoil) is a fraction obtained from petroleum distillation. It includes distillates - the lighter fractions, and residues - the heavier fractions.
The term fuel oil generally includes any liquid fuel that is burned in a furnace or boiler to generate heat, or used in an engine to generate power. However, it doesn't usually include other liquid oils, such as those with a flash point of approximately 42 °C (108 °F), or oils burned in cotton- or wool-wick burners. In a stricter sense, the term fuel oil refers only to the heaviest commercial fuels that crude oil can yield, that is, those fuels heavier than gasoline (petrol) and naphtha.
Fuel oil consists of long-chain hydrocarbons, particularly alkanes, cycloalkanes, and aromatics. Small molecules like those in propane, naphtha, gasoline for cars, and jet fuel (kerosene) have relatively low boiling points, and they are removed at the start of the fractional distillation process. Heavier petroleum products like diesel fuel and lubricating oil are much less volatile and distill out more slowly, while bunker oil is literally the bottom of the barrel. In oil distilling, the only components denser than bunker fuel are carbon black feedstock and bituminous residue (asphalt), which is used widely for paving roads, and in some regions for sealing roofs.
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