What is kerosene made of?
Kerosene is a fuel that is used to power many airplanes and helicopters. So it enables you to be in another country or even on another continent in just a few hours. Many would therefore like to know what the material is made of.
The discovery of the substance
The term kerosene can be described as a kind of super-category - there is no such thing as one kerosene, rather, what kerosene is made of differs depending on the aircraft in which it is used comes. Learn how the material was discovered.
- In 1846, the Canadian geologist Abraham Gesner produced a liquid using coal that was easy to set on fire. The kerosene got its by an important by-product with a wax-like consistency Names - the ancient Greek word "kirós" means wax. Today you will usually only know the main product, kerosene.
- A few years later, a significantly cheaper and simpler system for producing kerosene was replaced. You too can benefit from this.
What kerosene mainly consists of today
In 1853 the possibilities for producing kerosene improved significantly. Since then, the majority of kerosene has been obtained from crude oil. It was only in this way that the production of large quantities of the substance and thus extensive air traffic, which you can also use, was made possible.
- Kerosene consists of a mixture of hydrocarbons. You know it as a colorless liquid. Aromatic hydrocarbons, cycloalkanes and alkanes are the main components of kerosene. Perhaps you are familiar with cycloalkanes and alkanes from your chemistry class.
- If you come into physical contact with it or notice a leak of the substance, you should alert an emergency service immediately. Because kerosene is not only dangerous for the environment, it is also harmful to health.
- Petroleum is very similar to kerosene, for the most part it differs in that no functional additives are added to it that favor its use as aircraft fuel. For example, you can run older lamps with kerosene.
- The additives enable safe air traffic for you: The substances prevent, for example, corrosion of the aircraft tank and static charging of the fuel.
One hears again and again that one should mix gasoline with diesel in the cold so that the ...
Kerosene is a mixture of hydrocarbons without which you would not be able to easily travel by plane today. What it's made of has changed over the years. After it was initially extracted from coal, it is now common to use petroleum in this process - This means that larger quantities can be produced more cheaply and you can fly over many kilometers at low cost will.
