I would think that heating oil, be it high or low sulphur, would not have any lubricity agents added. Why would it? And yes, low sulphur diesel had additives too, just not as much. Contrary to popular belief, heating oil is not the same as diesel fuel, but is a close cousin. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heating_oil

 

I've run heating oil, WMO, JP-8 and diesel thru my 12 valve and only difference was with the WMO I could lay some serious smoke when I wanted.

 

That's already true. Most (90+%) distillate is already ULSD. The heating oil market in the northeast is big enough to still make High Sulfur heating oil worthwhile, so it does exist there. No refineries I know north of New Jersey, but there is Canada and plenty of ship harbors along the coast.

Most heating oil leaves the terminal as "diesel" and therefore gets lubricity additives. If it leaves as high sulfur heating oil, it can't legally be used for diesel fuel (and wouldn't need it anyway since it's high sulfur).

A 12V isn't nearly as sensitive to poor lubricity as a modern high pressure CRD.

 

The reason I asked if there were any refineries in the NE is because one of the sticking points that the government and refiners have about high sulfur fuel is that it contaminates the pipelines.
Seems to me that if they have a hassle using the pipelines that there would be no reason to mess with HSD. After all the heating oil market is too big to truck all the fuel but not big enough to build dedicated pipelines.

 

The pipelines all ship jet fuel and that is high sulfur as well.

 

So I'm a little confused. Is heating oil dyed red like off road diesel, or not?

 

Heating oil is dyed red, just like off-road diesel. Red dye means no highway taxes have been applied.


Heating oil can be 5000 ppm sulfur. Off-road diesel can be 500 ppm for now, but will be 15 ppm very soon. Either way, red dye = not taxed.