Kerosene, also known as paraffin oil, is a petroleum-based fuel used in aircraft as jet fuel and in lamps for heating. It has a higher flash point than gasoline, making it safer to store. Kerosene was discovered in 1853 and was first used for lighting before being adapted for industrial use. While it has been overtaken by gasoline as a source of fuel, the US still produces 1 billion gallons of kerosene annually.
Paraffin oil, called kerosene in the United States and Canada, Australia and New Zealand, is a type of petroleum-based fuel commonly used in aircraft, where it is called jet fuel. It is produced at two different levels of energy density with the C1 version, or lighter, being used for aircraft engines, outboard motors for boats and other machines. Type C2 of kerosene is used in oil lamps for heating and as stove oil.
When paraffin oil is used as jet fuel, it is further divided into variants depending on the needs of the aircraft and can be labeled as Jet A, Jet A-1 and Jet B or JP-4 through JP-8. Jet A and Jet A-1 are the most common types of paraffin oil used in commercial aircraft with turbine engines, and Jet B is replaced in cold climate environments. Jet-4 and Jet-5 fuels are blends of kerosene and gasoline, or other flammable liquid hydrocarbons such as naphthene, for use in US Air Force and US Navy aircraft, respectively. JP-7 is used in supersonic aircraft and JP-8 is used by North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military aircraft. Another type of kerosene jet fuel, designated RP-1, is often blended with liquid oxygen to power rockets.
One of the advantages that paraffin oil or kerosene has over conventional gasoline both as aviation fuel and, in other conventional uses, is that it has a higher flash point than gasoline. This makes it less flammable and easier to store, with the lower risk of fire making it more similar to diesel. Kerosene stoves are often promoted in Western countries as a convenient and portable device to take on a camping trip, as the fuel is relatively safe to transport and, in developing countries such as India, is the primary cooking fuel used by the population. rural.
As one of the oldest petroleum-based fuels around, kerosene was first discovered in 1853 by Abraham Gesner, a Canadian physician and geologist. The discovery of him is credited with initiating the worldwide commercial exploitation of petroleum. It was first used as a common fuel for lighting sources, before electric lighting became widespread. Kerosene was soon adapted as an industrial lubricant and industrial solvent including in paints and varnishes and in the insecticides used to kill mosquitoes.
Paraffin oil refining dominated the petroleum industry for about 60 years. In the 1920s, mass production of automobile internal combustion engines built to run on gasoline rapidly overtook industry. While it soon became of limited value as a source of lighting or fuel, by the 1990s, the United States was still producing 1,000,000,000 gallons (3,785,411,784 liters) of kerosene annually.
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