Old oil

[Weatherlawyer]

[Fredxxx]

Cheap: kerosene makes up a rather large fraction of crude oil. Safe to handle: less toxic, doesn't ignite easily. Higher boiling point. Good lubricant for pumps etc.

In practice gas turbines can run on virtually any fuel.

[newshound]

Lovely picture!

One of the job offers I had when I left university in 1970 was to work on flame failure detectors for oil fired power stations. As you say, PF flames are spectacular (oil flames are similar). I forget the number of burners in (say) a 500 MW boiler, there are quite a few, but we are probably talking about 20 MW in each flame.

[newshound]

We can't all know everything, it would surely be more helpful to explain.

Paraffin has a fairly low viscosity, therefore is convenient to handle (compared to bunker oil which is typically heated to 90 C). It's also relatively pure, giving fewer problem with injectors. The sulphur in bunker oil is also going to corrode stuff downstream, it is hard enough finding suitable materials for gas turbine blades without making life deliberately more difficult.

[The Natural Philosopher]

"There are of course sound engineering chemical and physical reasons why he did, but you don't know them."

But you have quoted most of them.

There's a few more, like energy density. I guess viscosity comes under 'Good lubricant for pumps etc.'

Indeed. And do run on many fuels. Most power stations are modified Rolls Royce Trent turbines coupled up to alternators.

[The Natural Philosopher]

energy density, viscosity, volatility, flammability, purity, availability out of the refineries of the day, atomisation properties...

My point was that Weatherwanker made it sound like some deep technical Mystery. It wasn't. It was a sober decision taken after balancing a lot of variables.

It has stuck because it was nearly the optimum fuel.