INTRODUCTION 



As the Navy is changing from the use of Navy special fuel oil 

 (NSFO) to the use of Navy distillate fuel it becomes more important 

 to know the fate of distillate fuel when it is spilled at sea. Of 

 particular interest are the persistence of the oils at sea and the 

 properties and changes in properties that are related to the removal 

 of the oil by man or by natural means. 



The general changes that take place in crude oils on the open 

 sea are known [1]. Evaporation and dissolution studies of several 

 fuel oils have been reported recently [2]. Comparatively little specific 

 information is available about the weathering of Navy distillate 

 fuel. The distillate fuel is expected to evaporate faster than the 

 NSFO and is expected not to become as viscous as spilled NSFO, but 

 how great these differences are is not known. The lack of color will 

 make recovery operations more difficult. An investigation at the Civil 

 Engineering Laboratory (CEL) , Naval Construction Battalion Center, 

 Port Hueneme, CA, was, therefore, sponsored by the Navy Supervisor 

 of Salvage. 



Samples of various Navy distillate fuels and of NSFO were subjected 

 to simulated ocean weathering in the laboratory. The results of this 

 investigation are presented in this report. 



EXPERIMENTAL WORK 

 Properties of the Fuel Oils 



Five fuel oils were obtained for the experiments. Four of these 

 were Navy distillate fuels, which were designated Fuel Oils A, B, 

 C, and D; the fifth was a Navy special fuel oil, designated Fuel 

 Oil E. Some of the properties of the distillate fuels and the corresponding 

 specification values [3], with degrees Fahrenheit converted to degrees 

 Centigrade, and with API gravities also listed as specific gravities, 

 are shown in Table 1 . 



The colors of the fuels ranged from a light brownish amber (1.0) 

 to a dark reddish brown (3.5). The reported crude sources were: Oil 

 A - 100% Arabian Crude; Oil B - 30% Southern California Regular, 14% 

 Torrance and Wilmington, 20% Inglewood, and 36% Segregated; Oil C - 79% 



Formerly Naval Civil Engineering Laboratory, 



