A fire starter includes a casing made from a first material a first material having a first time associated therewith that defines a length of time that the casing burns after being ignited. A second material disposed in the casing has a second time associated therewith that defines a length of time that the second material burns after being ignited. An igniter, disposed in the casing and adjacent to the second material, generates a first thermal event to ignite the second material wherein the second material combusts to define a second thermal event that ignites the first material. An actuator is coupled to the igniter and is positioned outside of the casing for activating the igniter to generate the first thermal event.

A low-sulfur coal production method having an excellent desulfurization effect includes bringing coal into contact with a chemical material that is a mixed solution of hydrogen peroxide and acetic anhydride to remove sulfur in the coal. It is preferred that the molar ratio of the acetic anhydride to the hydrogen peroxide is 0.5 to 12.0 inclusive. It is preferred that the acetic anhydride is mixed with the hydrogen peroxide before the chemical material is brought into contact with the coal and the chemical material is brought into contact with the coal after 10 minutes or more has elapsed since the mixing.

A co-current contacting system for removing impurities from a gas stream is described herein. The co-current contacting system includes a co-current contactor configured to co-currently flow a gas stream including impurities and a liquid stream through the co-current contactor. The co-current contactor is also configured to incorporate liquid droplets formed from the liquid stream into the gas stream, such that the impurities from the gas stream are absorbed by the liquid droplets. The co-current contacting system also includes a separator configured to remove the gas stream from the liquid droplets including the impurities, generating a purified gas stream and a rich liquid stream. The co-current contacting system is configured to recycle the rich liquid stream for reuse as a portion of the liquid stream flowing into the co-current contactor.

Fuel oil compositions, and methods for blending such fuel oil compositions, to enhance initial compatibility and longer term stability when such fuel oil compositions are blended to meet IMO 2020 low sulfur fuel oil requirements (ISO 8217). In one or more embodiments, asphaltenic resid base stocks are blended with high aromatic slurry oil to facilitate initial compatibility such that low sulfur cutter stocks, e.g., vacuum gas oil and/or cycle oil, may be further blended therein to cut sulfur content while maintaining longer term stability. These fuel oil compositions are economically advantageous when used as marine low sulfur fuel oils because greater concentrations of high viscosity resids are present in the final blend.

Fuel oil compositions, and methods for blending such fuel oil compositions, to enhance initial compatibility and longer term stability when such fuel oil compositions are blended to meet IMO 2020 low sulfur fuel oil requirements (ISO 8217). In one or more embodiments, asphaltenic resid base stocks are blended with high aromatic slurry oil to facilitate initial compatibility such that low sulfur cutter stocks, e.g., vacuum gas oil and/or cycle oil, may be further blended therein to cut sulfur content while maintaining longer term stability. These fuel oil compositions are economically advantageous when used as marine low sulfur fuel oils because greater concentrations of high viscosity resids are present in the final blend.

Low sulfur fuel oil blend compositions and methods of making such blend compositions to increase the stability and compatibility of LSFO blends having paraffinic resids that are blended with distillates and/or cracked stocks of higher asphaltenes and/or aromatics content. In one or more embodiments, distillates and/or cracked stocks that incrementally reduce the initial aromaticity of the distillate or cracked stock with the highest aromaticity are sequentially blended prior to resid addition. Such incremental reduction and sequential blending have been found to provide a resulting low sulfur fuel oil blend that is both compatible and stable.

Low sulfur marine fuel compositions and methods for making the same are provided. The compositions exhibit a sulfur content of at most 0.50 wt. %, a solvent power of at least 0.30, and a P-value of at least 1.15.

The present invention a mixed fuel suitable for diesel engines, which consists of the following components by volume percentage: 35% to 37.5% of diesel, 35% to 37.5% of ethanol and 25% to 30% of PODE, wherein the diesel is petroleum diesel having a cetane number not less than 48; the purity of the ethanol by mass percentage is not less than 99.5%; and, the PODE is a mixture of two fuels shown by molecular formulae CH.sub.3O(CH.sub.2O).sub.3CH.sub.3 and CH.sub.3O(CH.sub.2O).sub.4CH.sub.3. The use of this fuel is advantageous for emission reduction.

A process for reducing the environmental contaminants in a ISO 8217 compliant Feedstock Heavy Marine Fuel Oil (Feedstock), the process involving: mixing a quantity of the Feedstock with a quantity of Activating Gas mixture to give a feedstock mixture; contacting the feedstock mixture with one or more catalysts to form a Process Mixture from the feedstock mixture; separating the Product Heavy Marine Fuel Oil liquid (Product) components of the Process Mixture from the gaseous components and by-product hydrocarbons of the Process Mixture and, discharging the Product. The Product is compliant with ISO standards for residual marine fuel oils and has a maximum sulfur content between the range of 0.05% wt. to 0.50% wt. The Product can be used as or as a blending stock for compliant, low sulfur or ultralow sulfur heavy marine fuel oil. A device for conducting the process is also disclosed.

A multi-stage process for the production of an ISO8217 compliant Product Heavy Marine Fuel Oil from ISO 8217 compliant Feedstock Heavy Marine Fuel Oil involving a core process under reactive conditions in a Reaction System composed of one or more reaction vessels, wherein one or more of the reaction vessels contains one or more catalysts in the form of a structured catalyst bed and is operated under reactive distillation conditions. The Product Heavy Marine Fuel Oil has a sulfur level has a maximum sulfur content (ISO 14596 or ISO 8754) between the range of 0.05 mass % to 1.0 mass. A process plant for conducting the process for conducting the process is disclosed.