Investigation Of Transportation And Unloading Problems Of Sudanese Fuel Oil At Soba Thermal Brick Factory

Abstract

In this research, the problems of using Sudanese fuel oil, (in Soba thermal brick factory), instead of the imported one were studied and some solutions were suggested. Sudanese fuel oil contains, relatively, large amount of paraffin wax that results in higher pour point and, consequently, generates problems in fuel oil unloading, storage, and delivery processes. The main work was devoted to the unloading process by keeping the fuel oil hot from the initial to the final station. This was done by calculating the amount of heat loss from the tanker within the journey time from Elobied to Khartoum. The final temperature of the fuel was found to be 24.7°C which is less than the pour point temperature. Then, different insulation thicknesses (5 mm ~ 70mm) were tested, the corresponding heat losses were calculated and the final temperatures were estimated and found to be in the range (38°C ~ 46°C). From the study, the best (optimum) thickness of the insulation was selected is (26 mm) which keeps the fuel temperature in the range of pour point.