Kerosene, also spelled kerosine, also called paraffin or paraffin oil, flammable hydrocarbon liquid commonly used as a fuel. Kerosene is typically pale yellow or colourless and has a not-unpleasant characteristic odour. It is obtained from petroleum and is used for burning in kerosene lamps and domestic heaters or furnaces, as a fuel or fuel component for jet engines, and as a solvent for Grease sur and insecticides.
Chemically, kerosene is a mixture of hydrocarbons. The chemical composition depends on its source, but it usually consists of about 10 different hydrocarbons, each containing 10 to 16 carbon atoms per molecule. The main constituents are saturated straight-chain and branched-chain paraffins, as well as ring-shaped cycloparaffins (also known as naphthenes). Kerosene is less volatile than gasoline. Its flash point (the temperature at which it will generate a flammable vapour near its surface) is 38 °C (100 °F) or higher, whereas that of gasoline is as low as −40 °C (−40 °F). This property makes kerosene a relatively safe fuel to store and handle.
With a boiling point between about 150 and 300 °C (300–575 °F), kerosene is considered to be one of the so-called middle distillates of crude oil, along with diesel fuel. It can be produced as “straight-run kerosene,” separated physically from the other crude oil fractions by distillation, or it can be produced as “cracked kerosene,” by chemically decomposing, or cracking, heavier portions of the oil at elevated temperatures.
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