If I salavage a fuel tank off another ship, can I use any of the fuel inside to get me home?
TL;DRAt the first tier a salvaged fuel tank is just an item with its contents that you sell or convert, though special equipment like the Vulcan's drones might later salvage fuel separately.
So I don't want to rule things out permanently forever because salvage is going to be... not strictly for Vehicle Pipeline, but tier zero, no, you're just salvaging the item and everything inside it is just this contained item that goes into it. If you're going to put it in a big grinder, it's obviously not going to survive out the other end. Maybe if you have special equipment, like you have the Vulcan's drones, you would salvage the fuel separately first.
Like configure the drones, say, I'm going out there and you're looking specifically for fuel.
Because those drones can do refueling, rearming, repairing. You could use the Vulcan to do the reverse of refueling on that ship first and then salvage all the parts manually. It's got a cargo bay so you can go out there and cut those bits. But no, to start with, you're just going to grab that item with its contents and you sell or convert it as needed.