British warships lost access to much of their preferred Persian fuel and increasingly used supplies from Trinidad, Venezuela, and the United States. Leaking and ballasted tanks introduced seawater, while some wartime fuels formed stable emulsions that damaged furnace brickwork and fouled gas passages. Settling tanks could help, but heating could not always break the water-fuel emulsion, making fuel quality a direct readiness problem. The account also notes compatibility work between Iranian and American fuels and anticipates the heavy-fuel problem that large naval gas turbines would need to solve. Successful 1946-48 motor-tanker trials used separate centrifugal purifier and clarifier stages to remove impurities from heavy fuel. This two-stage method offered lower running costs and a practical way to treat the fuel.
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Wartime fuel oil and naval machinery lessons
A 1949 engineering passage traces how changing fuel sources, seawater contamination, and compatibility requirements affected wartime machinery.