Diesel or diesel fuel (IPAEng: ˈdiːzəl) in general is any fuel used in diesel engines. The most common is a specific fractional distillate of petroleum fuel oil, but alternatives that are not derived from petroleum, such as biodiesel, biomass to liquid (BTL) or gas to liquid (GTL) diesel, are increasingly being developed and adopted. To distinguish these types, petroleum-derived diesel is increasingly called petrodiesel. Ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) is a standard for defining diesel fuel with substantially lowered sulfur contents. As of 2007, almost every diesel fuel available in America and Europe is the ULSD type.

Etymology

The word "diesel" is derived from the German inventor Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel who in 1892 invented the diesel engine.

Diesel engine

Main: Diesel engine

Diesel engines are a type of internal combustion engine. Rudolf Diesel originally designed the diesel engine to use coal dust as a fuel. He also experimented with various oils, including some vegetable oils, such as peanut oil, which was used to power the engines which he exhibited at the 1900 Paris Exposition and the 1911 World's Fair in Paris.

Sources

Diesel fuel is produced from petroleum and from various other sources. The resulting products are interchangeable in most applications.

Petroleum diesel

Refining

Petroleum diesel, also called petrodiesel, or fossil diesel is produced from the fractional distillation of crude oil between 200 °C (392 °F) and 350 °C (662 °F) at atmospheric pressure, resulting in a mixture of carbon chains that typically contain between 8 and 21 carbon atoms per molecule.Chris Collins (2007), “Implementing Phytoremediation of Petroleum Hydrocarbons, Methods in Biotechnology 23:99-108. Humana Press. ISBN 1588295419.

Fuel value and price

see: Gasoline and diesel usage and pricing The density of petroleum diesel is about 0.85 kg/l (7.09 lbs/gallon(us)), about 18% more than petrol (gasoline), which has a density of about 0.72 kg/l (6.01 lbs/gallon(us)). When burnt, diesel typically releases about 38.6 MJ/l (138,700 BTU per US gallon), whereas gasoline releases 34.9 MJ/l (125,000 BTU per US gallon), 10% lessTable B4, Appendix B, Transportation Energy Data Book from the Center for Transportation Analysis of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory by energy density, but 45.41 MJ/kg and 48.47 MJ/kg, 6.7% more by specific energy. Diesel is generally simpler to refine from petroleum than gasoline. The price of diesel traditionally rises during colder months as demand for heating oil rises, which is refined in much the same way. Due to recent changes in fuel quality regulations, additional refining is required to remove sulfur which contributes to a sometimes higher cost. In many parts of the United States and throughout the UK and Australia diesel may be higher priced than petrol. Reasons for higher priced diesel include the shutdown of some refineries in the Gulf of Mexico, diversion of mass refining capacity to gasoline production, and a recent transfer to ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD), which causes infrastructural complications.