Kerosene
For example, in the United States, Pennsylvania requires that portable containers used at retail service stations for kerosene be colored blue, as opposed to red (for gasoline) or yellow (for diesel).
[8][9] The World Health Organization considers kerosene to be a polluting fuel and recommends that "governments and practitioners immediately stop promoting its household use".
[11] Kerosene is a low-viscosity, clear liquid formed from hydrocarbons obtained from the fractional distillation of petroleum between 150 and 275 °C (300 and 525 °F), resulting in a mixture with a density of 0.78–0.81 g/cm3.
[13] Regardless of crude oil source or processing history, kerosene's major components are branched- and straight-chain alkanes (hydrocarbon chains) and naphthenes (cycloalkanes), which normally account for at least 70% of volume.
BS 2869 Class C1 is the lightest grade used for lanterns, camping stoves, and wick heaters, and mixed with petrol in some vintage combustion engines as a substitute for tractor vaporizing oil.
[20] The process of distilling crude oil/petroleum into kerosene, as well as other hydrocarbon compounds, was first written about in the ninth century by the Persian scholar Rāzi (or Rhazes).
In his Kitab al-Asrar (Book of Secrets), the physician and chemist Razi described two methods for the production of kerosene, termed naft abyad (نفط ابيض"white naphtha"), using an apparatus called an alembic.
The distillation process was repeated until most of the volatile hydrocarbon fractions had been removed and the final product was perfectly clear and safe to burn.
[24][25] Canadian geologist Abraham Pineo Gesner claimed that in 1846, he had given a public demonstration in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island of a new process he had discovered.
[24][note 1] He heated coal in a retort, and distilled from it a clear, thin fluid that he showed made an excellent lamp fuel.
Young took out a patent on his process and the resulting products in 1850, and built the first truly commercial oil-works in the world at Bathgate in 1851, using oil extracted from locally mined torbanite, shale, and bituminous coal.
[33] Ignacy Łukasiewicz, a Polish pharmacist residing in Lviv, and his partner Jan Zeh [pl] had been experimenting with different distillation techniques, trying to improve on Gesner's kerosene process, but using oil from a local petroleum seep.
On the night of 31 July 1853, doctors at the local hospital needed to perform an emergency operation, virtually impossible by candlelight.
Łukasiewicz realized the potential of his work and quit the pharmacy to find a business partner, and then traveled to Vienna to register his technique with the government.
[37] A pilot project by ETH Zurich used solar power to produce kerosene from carbon dioxide and water in July 2022.
[41] Although it replaced whale oil, the 1873 edition of Elements of Chemistry said, "The vapor of this substance [kerosene] mixed with air is as explosive as gunpowder.
More ubiquitous in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, kerosene space heaters were often built into kitchen ranges, and kept many farm and fishing families warm and dry through the winter.
At one time, citrus growers used a smudge pot fueled by kerosene to create a pall of thick smoke over a grove in an effort to prevent freezing temperatures from damaging crops.
Before the days of electrically lighted road barriers, highway construction zones were marked at night by kerosene fired, pot-bellied torches.
[citation needed] Recently, a multipurpose lantern that doubles as a cook stove has been introduced in India in areas with no electricity.
In Europe following the Second World War, automobiles were similarly modified to run on kerosene rather than gasoline, which they would have to import and pay heavy taxes on.
Besides additional piping and the switch between fuels, the head gasket was replaced by a much thicker one to diminish the compression ratio (making the engine less powerful and less efficient, but able to run on kerosene).
[53] For the five 6.4 meganewton sea-level thrust F-1 rocket engines of the Saturn V, burning together, the reaction generated roughly 1.62 × 1011 watts (J/s) (162 gigawatt) or 217 million horsepower.
[54] Ultra-low sulfur kerosene is a custom-blended fuel used by the New York City Transit Authority to power its bus fleet.
[56] Kerosene is used as a diluent in the PUREX extraction process, but it is increasingly being supplanted by dodecane and other artificial hydrocarbons such as TPH (Hydrogenated Propylene Trimer).
In recent times it has been shown by Mark Foreman at Chalmers that aliphatic kerosene can be replaced in solvent extraction with HVO100 which is a second generation biodiesel made by Neste.
It can be also used to prevent air from re-dissolving in a boiled liquid,[58] and to store alkali metals such as potassium, sodium, and rubidium (with the exception of lithium, which is less dense than kerosene, causing it to float).
Kerosene is generally not recommended as fuel for indoor fire dancing, as it produces an unpleasant (to some) odor, which becomes poisonous in sufficient concentration.
[61] The World Health Organization considers kerosene to be a polluting fuel and recommends that "governments and practitioners immediately stop promoting its household use".
Kerosene is sometimes recommended as a folk remedy for killing head lice, but health agencies warn against this as it can cause burns and serious illness.
