What Is Heating Oil?

Written on: October 31, 2022

Heating Oil Is Refined from Crude Oil

Heating oil comes from crude oil, which is refined to remove impurities. It’s then separated into different “fractions.”

The lighter fractions of crude oil eventually become propane, butane, and petrochemicals while heavier fractions are used to produce gasoline, kerosene, jet fuel, diesel fuel, and No. 2 home heating oil. (Diesel fuel and No. 2 fuel oil are virtually the same, in terms of their chemical composition).

Even heavier fractions become No. 4 or No. 6 heating oils. This is used for commercial and industrial buildings, schools, and hospitals.

In recent years, there have been significant strides in the refining of heating oil that make it much cleaner and increasingly greener. Notably, most of the sulfur content has been removed, Here is why this is important.

• Ultra-low-sulfur heating oil (ULSHO) has 99% less sulfur in it than standard heating oil.
• The changeover to ULSHO results in a reduction in emissions of over 70%, compared with the emissions produced by heating oil from the past.
• A buildup of sulfur in the heating system can lead to system maintenance issues. The drastic reduction of sulfur means that there will be far fewer system issues, which will result in lower maintenance costs for heating oil consumers.
• Because there is virtually no sulfur in the heating system now thanks to ULSHO, heating oil systems can burn the fuel more efficiently, leading to lower heating bills.
• ULSHO opens the door for the introduction of super-efficient heating systems, which are already being used with great results in other countries that widely use ULSHO.

Heating oil is also being blended with 100% renewable biofuel made from plants and other organic matter. This reduces the fuel’s carbon emissions.

Broco Energy and Bioheat Fuel

We only deliver Bioheat fuel to our heating oil customers. This is a clean alternative to conventional heating oil that also produces fewer greenhouse gas emissions than natural gas.

Bioheat fuel is a blend of biodiesel and traditional petroleum-based heating oil. Biodiesel, which is made from vegetable oils, animal fats and other renewable materials, is considered a biogenic fuel that reduces carbon output 100%. That’s because the combustion of biofuels and other biogenic energy sources actually recycle carbon dioxide emissions through renewable plant materials and other biomass feedstocks. That’s why you’ll be hearing a lot about net-zero carbon emissions in the years ahead.

Increasing our Biofuel blends

With a solid partnership in place with REG, our trusted supplier, we expect to keep increasing our blend levels – eventually to B100 to all of our residential customers in New England.

We have already upgraded our facilities to increase blending capacity, including extra storage tanks to accommodate 150,000 gallons of B100 heated storage that will be blended into 200,000 gallons of heating oil storage and 50,000 gallons of diesel storage.

Our supplier, REG, is an international producer of cleaner fuels and North America’s largest producer of biodiesel. REG utilizes an integrated procurement, distribution, and logistics network to operate 12 biorefineries in the U.S. and Europe. In 2020, REG produced 519 million gallons of cleaner fuel, delivering 4.2 million metric tons of carbon reduction. REG is meeting the growing global demand for lower-carbon fuels and helping Broco Energy to do our part to assure a more sustainable future.

Contact Broco Energy today for your residential or commercial heating oil service needs.