Diesel fuel

Diesel fuel /ˈdiːzəl/, also called diesel oil, is any liquid

fuel specifically designed for use in a diesel engine, a
type of internal combustion engine in which fuel
ignition takes place without a spark as a result of
compression of the inlet air and then injection of fuel.
Therefore, diesel fuel needs good compression ignition
characteristics.

The most common type of diesel fuel 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 A tank of diesel fuel on a truck
distinguish these types, petroleum-derived diesel is
sometimes called petrodiesel in some academic
circles.[1]

In many countries, diesel fuel is standardised. For example, in the European Union, the standard for diesel
fuel is EN 590. Diesel fuel has many colloquial names; most commonly, it is simply referred to as diesel. In
the UK, diesel fuel for on-road use is commonly abbreviated DERV, standing for diesel-engined road
vehicle, which carries a tax premium over equivalent fuel for non-road use.[2] In Australia, diesel fuel is
also known as distillate[3] (not to be confused with "distillate" in an older sense referring to a different
motor fuel), and in Indonesia, it is known as Solar, a trademarked name from the country's national
petroleum company Pertamina.

Ultra-low-sulfur diesel (ULSD) is a diesel fuel with substantially lowered sulfur contents. As of 2016,
almost all of the petroleum-based diesel fuel available in the UK, mainland Europe, and North America is
of a ULSD type.

Before diesel fuel had been standardised, the majority of diesel engines typically ran on cheap fuel oils.
These fuel oils are still used in watercraft diesel engines. Despite being specifically designed for diesel
engines, diesel fuel can also be used as fuel for several non-diesel engines, for example the Akroyd engine,
the Stirling engine, or boilers for steam engines.

Contents
History
Origins
Since the 20th century
Types
Petroleum diesel
Synthetic diesel
Biodiesel
Hydrogenated oils and fats
 DME
Storage
Standards
Measurements and pricing
Cetane number
Fuel value and price
Taxation
Uses
On-road vehicles
Railroad
Aircraft
Military vehicles
Tractors and heavy equipment
Other uses
Chemical analysis
Chemical composition
Chemical properties
Carbon dioxide formation
Hazards
Environment hazards of sulfur
Algae, microbes, and water contamination
Road hazard
See also
References
Further reading
External links

History

Origins

Diesel fuel originated from experiments conducted by German scientist and inventor Rudolf Diesel for his
compression-ignition engine he invented in 1892. Originally, Diesel did not consider using any specific
type of fuel, instead, he claimed that the operating principle of his rational heat motor would work with any
kind of fuel in any state of matter.[4] However, both the first diesel engine prototype and the first functional
Diesel engine were only designed for liquid fuels.[5]

At first, Diesel tested crude oil from Pechelbronn, but soon replaced it with petrol and kerosene, because
crude oil proved to be too viscous,[6] with the main testing fuel for the Diesel engine being kerosene.[7] In
addition to that, Diesel experimented with different types of lamp oil from various sources, as well as
different types of petrol and ligroin, which all worked well as Diesel engine fuels. Later, Diesel tested coal
tar creosote,[8] paraffin oil, crude oil, gasoil, and fuel oil, which eventually worked as well.[9] In Scotland
and France, shale oil was used as fuel for the first 1898 production Diesel engines because other fuels were
too expensive.[10] In 1900, the French Otto society built a Diesel engine for the use with crude oil, which
was exhibited at the 1900 Paris Exposition[11] and the 1911 World's Fair in Paris.[12] The engine actually
ran on peanut oil instead of crude oil, and no modifications were necessary for peanut oil operation.[11]

During his first Diesel engine tests, Diesel also used illuminating gas as fuel, and managed to build
functional designs, both with and without pilot injection.[13] According to Diesel, neither was a coal-dust–
producing industry existent, nor was fine, high quality coal-dust commercially available in the late 1890s.
This is the reason why the Diesel engine was never designed or planned as a coal-dust engine.[14] Only in
December 1899, did Diesel test a coal-dust prototype, which used external mixture formation and liquid
fuel pilot injection.[15] This engine proved to be functional, but suffered from piston ring failure after a very
few minutes due to coal dust deposition.[16]

Since the 20th century

Before diesel fuel had been standardised, diesel engines typically ran on cheap fuel oils. In the United
States, these were distilled from petroleum, whereas in Europe, coal-tar creosote oil was used. Some diesel
engines were fuelled with mixtures of several different fuels, such as petrol, kerosine, rapeseed oil, or
lubricating oil, because they were untaxed and thus cheap.[17] The introduction of motor-vehicle diesel
engines, such as the Mercedes-Benz OM 138, in the 1930s meant that higher quality fuels with proper
ignition characteristics were needed. At first no improvements were made to motor-vehicle diesel fuel
quality. After World War II, the first modern high quality diesel fuels were standardised. These standards
were, for instance, the DIN 51601, VTL 9140-001, and NATO F 54 standards.[18] In 1993, the DIN
51601 was rendered obsolete by the new EN 590 standard, which has been used in the European Union
ever since. In sea-going watercraft, where diesel propulsion had gained prevalence by the late 1970s due to
increasing fuel costs caused by the 1970s energy crisis, cheap heavy fuel oils are still used instead of
conventional motor-vehicle diesel fuel. These heavy fuel oils (often called Bunker C) can be used in diesel-
powered and steam-powered vessels.[19]

Types
Diesel fuel is produced from various sources, the most common being petroleum. Other sources include
biomass, animal fat, biogas, natural gas, and coal liquefaction.

Petroleum diesel

Petroleum diesel, also called petrodiesel,[20] fossil diesel, or mineral

diesel, is the most common type of diesel fuel. It is produced from
the fractional distillation of crude oil between 200 and 350 °C (392
and 662  °F) at atmospheric pressure, resulting in a mixture of
carbon chains that typically contain between 9 and 25 carbon atoms
per molecule.[21]

Synthetic diesel
A modern diesel dispenser

Synthetic diesel can be produced from any carbonaceous material,

including biomass, biogas, natural gas, coal and many others. The raw material is gasified into synthesis
gas, which after purification is converted by the Fischer–Tropsch process to a synthetic diesel.[22]
The process is typically referred to as biomass-to-liquid (BTL), gas-to-liquid (GTL) or coal-to-liquid
(CTL), depending on the raw material used.

Paraffinic synthetic diesel generally has a near-zero content of sulfur and very low aromatics content,
reducing unregulated emissions of toxic hydrocarbons, nitrous oxides and particulate matter (PM).[23]

Biodiesel

Biodiesel is obtained from vegetable oil or animal fats (biolipids) which are
mainly fatty acid methyl esters (FAME), and transesterified with methanol.
It can be produced from many types of oils, the most common being
rapeseed oil (rapeseed methyl ester, RME) in Europe and soybean oil (soy
methyl ester, SME) in the US. Methanol can also be replaced with ethanol
for the transesterification process, which results in the production of ethyl
esters. The transesterification processes use catalysts, such as sodium or
potassium hydroxide, to convert vegetable oil and methanol into biodiesel
and the undesirable byproducts glycerine and water, which will need to be
removed from the fuel along with methanol traces. Biodiesel can be used
pure (B100) in engines where the manufacturer approves such use, but it is Biodiesel made from
more often used as a mix with diesel, BXX where XX is the biodiesel soybean oil
content in percent.[24][25]

FAME used as fuel is specified in DIN EN 14214[26] and ASTM D6751 standards.[27]

Fuel Injection Equipment (FIE) manufacturers have raised several concerns regarding biodiesel, identifying
FAME as being the cause of the following problems: corrosion of fuel injection components, low-pressure
fuel system blockage, increased dilution and polymerization of engine sump oil, pump seizures due to high
fuel viscosity at low temperature, increased injection pressure, elastomeric seal failures and fuel injector
spray blockage.[28] Pure biodiesel has an energy content about 5–10% lower than petroleum diesel.[29] The
loss in power when using pure biodiesel is 5–7%.[25]

Unsaturated fatty acids are the source for the lower oxidation stability. They react with oxygen and form
peroxides and result in degradation byproducts, which can cause sludge and lacquer in the fuel system.[30]

As biodiesel contains low levels of sulfur, the emissions of sulfur oxides and sulfates, major components of
acid rain, are low. Use of biodiesel also results in reductions of unburned hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide
(CO), and particulate matter. CO emissions using biodiesel are substantially reduced, on the order of 50%
compared to most petrodiesel fuels. The exhaust emissions of particulate matter from biodiesel have been
found to be 30% lower than overall particulate matter emissions from petrodiesel. The exhaust emissions of
total hydrocarbons (a contributing factor in the localized formation of smog and ozone) are up to 93%
lower for biodiesel than diesel fuel.

Biodiesel also may reduce health risks associated with petroleum diesel. Biodiesel emissions showed
decreased levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) and nitrated PAH compounds, which have
been identified as potential carcinogens. In recent testing, PAH compounds were reduced by 75–85%,
except for benz(a)anthracene, which was reduced by roughly 50%. Targeted nPAH compounds were also
reduced dramatically with biodiesel fuel, with 2-nitrofluorene and 1-nitropyrene reduced by 90%, and the
rest of the nPAH compounds reduced to only trace levels.[31]

Hydrogenated oils and fats

This category of diesel fuels involves converting the triglycerides in vegetable oil and animal fats into
alkanes by refining and hydrogenation, such as Neste Renewable Diesel or H-Bio. The produced fuel has
many properties that are similar to synthetic diesel, and are free from the many disadvantages of FAME.

DME

Dimethyl ether, DME, is a synthetic, gaseous diesel fuel that results in clean combustion with very little
soot and reduced NOx emissions.[24]

Storage
In the US, diesel is recommended to be stored in a yellow container
to differentiate it from kerosene, which is typically kept in blue
containers, and gasoline (petrol), which is typically kept in red
containers.[32] In the UK, diesel is normally stored in a black
container to differentiate it from unleaded or leaded petrol, which
are stored in green and red containers, respectively.[33]
Large diesel fuel tanks in Sörnäinen,
Standards Helsinki, Finland

The diesel engine is a multifuel engine and can run on a huge

variety of fuels. However, development of high-performance, high-speed diesel engines for cars and lorries
in the 1930s meant that a proper fuel specifically designed for such engines was needed: diesel fuel. In
order to ensure consistent quality, diesel fuel is standardised; the first standards were introduced after World
War II.[18] Typically, a standard defines certain properties of the fuel, such as cetane number, density, flash
point, sulphur content, or biodiesel content. Diesel fuel standards include:

Diesel fuel

EN 590 (European Union)

ASTM D975 (United States)
GOST R 52368 (Russia; equivalent to EN 590)
NATO F 54 (NATO; equivalent to EN 590)
DIN 51601 (West Germany; obsolete)

Biodiesel fuel

EN 14214 (European Union)

ASTM D6751 (United States)
CAN/CGSB-3.524 (Canada)

Measurements and pricing

Cetane number
The principal measure of diesel fuel quality is its cetane number. A cetane number is a measure of the delay
of ignition of a diesel fuel.[34] A higher cetane number indicates that the fuel ignites more readily when
sprayed into hot compressed air.[34] European (EN 590 standard) road diesel has a minimum cetane
number of 51. Fuels with higher cetane numbers, normally "premium" diesel fuels with additional cleaning
agents and some synthetic content, are available in some markets.

Fuel value and price

About 86.1% of diesel fuel mass is carbon, and when burned, it offers a net heating value of 43.1 MJ/kg as
opposed to 43.2 MJ/kg for gasoline. Due to the higher density, diesel fuel offers a higher volumetric energy
density: the density of EN 590 diesel fuel is defined as 0.820 to 0.845  kg/L (6.84 to 7.05  lb/US  gal) at
15  °C (59  °F), about 9.0-13.9% more than EN 228 gasoline (petrol)'s 0.720–0.775  kg/L (6.01–
6.47 lb/US gal) at 15 °C, which should be put into consideration when comparing volumetric fuel prices.
The CO2 emissions from diesel are 73.25 g/MJ, just slightly lower than for gasoline at 73.38 g/MJ.[35]

Diesel fuel is generally simpler to refine from petroleum than gasoline, and contains hydrocarbons having a
boiling point in the range of 180–360 °C (356–680 °F). Additional refining is required to remove sulfur,
which contributes to a sometimes higher cost. In many parts of the United States and throughout the United
Kingdom and Australia,[36] diesel fuel may be priced higher than petrol.[37] 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.[38] In Sweden, a diesel fuel designated as MK-1 (class 1 environmental diesel) is also being
sold. This is a ULSD that also has a lower aromatics content, with a limit of 5%.[39] This fuel is slightly
more expensive to produce than regular ULSD. In Germany, the fuel tax on diesel fuel is about 28% lower
than the petrol fuel tax.

Taxation

Diesel fuel is similar to heating oil, which is used in central heating. In Europe, the United States, and
Canada, taxes on diesel fuel are higher than on heating oil due to the fuel tax, and in those areas, heating oil
is marked with fuel dyes and trace chemicals to prevent and detect tax fraud. "Untaxed" diesel (sometimes
called "off-road diesel" or "red diesel" due to its red dye) is available in some countries for use primarily in
agricultural applications, such as fuel for tractors, recreational and utility vehicles or other noncommercial
vehicles that do not use public roads. This fuel may have sulfur levels that exceed the limits for road use in
some countries (e.g. US).

This untaxed diesel is dyed red for identification,[40] and using this untaxed diesel fuel for a typically taxed
purpose (such as driving use), the user can be fined (e.g. US$10,000 in the US). In the United Kingdom,
Belgium and the Netherlands, it is known as red diesel (or gas oil), and is also used in agricultural vehicles,
home heating tanks, refrigeration units on vans/trucks which contain perishable items such as food and
medicine and for marine craft. Diesel fuel, or marked gas oil is dyed green in the Republic of Ireland and
Norway. The term "diesel-engined road vehicle" (DERV) is used in the UK as a synonym for unmarked
road diesel fuel. In India, taxes on diesel fuel are lower than on petrol, as the majority of the transportation
for grain and other essential commodities across the country runs on diesel.

Taxes on biodiesel in the US vary between states. Some states (Texas, for example) have no tax on
biodiesel and a reduced tax on biodiesel blends equivalent to the amount of biodiesel in the blend, so that
B20 fuel is taxed 20% less than pure petrodiesel.[41] Other states, such as North Carolina, tax biodiesel (in
any blended configuration) the same as petrodiesel, although they have introduced new incentives to
producers and users of all biofuels.[42]
Uses
Diesel fuel is mostly used in high-speed diesel engines, especially motor-vehicle (e.g. car, lorry) diesel
engines, but not all diesel engines run on diesel fuel. For example, large two-stroke watercraft engines
typically use heavy fuel oils instead of diesel fuel,[19] and certain types of diesel engines, such as MAN M-
System engines, are designed to run on petrol with knock resistances of up to 86 RON.[43] On the other
hand, gas turbine and some other types of internal combustion engines, and external combustion engines,
can also be designed to take diesel fuel.

The viscosity requirement of diesel fuel is usually specified at 40 °C.[34] A disadvantage of diesel fuel in
cold climates is that its viscosity increases as the temperature decreases, changing it into a gel (see
Compression Ignition – Gelling) that cannot flow in fuel systems. Special low-temperature diesel contains
additives to keep it liquid at lower temperatures.

On-road vehicles

Trucks and buses, which were often otto-powered in the 1920s through 1950s, are now almost exclusively
diesel-powered. Due to its ignition characteristics, diesel fuel is thus widely used in these vehicles. Since
diesel fuel is not well-suited for otto engines, passenger cars, which often use otto or otto-derived engines,
typically run on petrol instead of diesel fuel. However, especially in Europe and India, many passenger cars
have, due to better engine efficiency,[44] diesel engines, and thus run on regular diesel fuel.

Railroad

Diesel displaced coal and fuel oil for steam-powered vehicles in the latter half of the 20th century, and is
now used almost exclusively for the combustion engines of self-powered rail vehicles (locomotives and
railcars).[45][46]

Aircraft

In general, diesel engines are not well-suited for planes and

helicopters. This is because of the diesel engine's comparatively
low power-to-mass ratio, meaning that diesel engines are typically
rather heavy, which is a disadvantage in aircraft. Therefore, there is
little need for using diesel fuel in aircraft, and diesel fuel is not
commercially used as aviation fuel. Instead, petrol (Avgas), and jet
fuel (e. g. Jet A-1) are used. However, especially in the 1920s and
1930s, numerous series-production aircraft diesel engines that ran Packard DR-980 9-cylinder diesel
on fuel oils were made, because they had several advantages: their aircraft engine, used in the first
fuel consumption was low, they were reliable, not prone to catching diesel-engine airplane
fire, and required minimal maintenance. The introduction of petrol
direct injection in the 1930s outweighed these advantages, and
aircraft diesel engines quickly fell out of use.[47] With improvements in power-to-mass ratios of diesel
engines, several on-road diesel engines have been converted to and certified for aircraft use since the early
21st century. These engines typically run on Jet A-1 aircraft fuel (but can also run on diesel fuel). Jet A-1
has ignition characteristics similar to diesel fuel, and is thus suited for certain (but not all) diesel engines.[48]

Military vehicles
Until World War II, several military vehicles, especially those that required high engine performance
(armored fighting vehicles, for example the M26 Pershing or Panther tanks), used conventional otto engines
and ran on petrol. Ever since World War II, several military vehicles with diesel engines have been made,
capable of running on diesel fuel. This is because diesel engines are more fuel efficient, and diesel fuel is
less prone to catching fire.[49] Some of these diesel-powered vehicles (such as the Leopard 1 or MAN 630)
still ran on petrol, and some military vehicles were still made with otto engines (e. g. Ural-375 or Unimog
404), incapable of running on diesel fuel.

Tractors and heavy equipment

Today's tractors and heavy equipment are mostly diesel-powered. Among tractors, only the smaller classes
may also offer gasoline-fuelled engines. The dieselization of tractors and heavy equipment began in
Germany before World War II but was unusual in the United States until after that war. During the 1950s
and 1960s, it progressed in the US as well. Diesel fuel is commonly used in oil and gas extracting
equipment, although some locales use electric or natural gas powered equipment.

Tractors and heavy equipment were often multifuel in the 1920s through 1940s, running either spark-
ignition and low-compression engines, akryod engines, or diesel engines. Thus many farm tractors of the
era could burn gasoline, alcohol, kerosene, and any light grade of fuel oil such as heating oil, or tractor
vaporising oil, according to whichever was most affordable in a region at any given time. On US farms
during this era, the name "distillate" often referred to any of the aforementioned light fuel oils. Spark
ignition engines did not start as well on distillate, so typically a small auxiliary gasoline tank was used for
cold starting, and the fuel valves were adjusted several minutes later, after warm-up, to transition to
distillate. Engine accessories such as vaporizers and radiator shrouds were also used, both with the aim of
capturing heat, because when such an engine was run on distillate, it ran better when both it and the air it
inhaled were warmer rather than at ambient temperature. Dieselization with dedicated diesel engines (high-
compression with mechanical fuel injection and compression ignition) replaced such systems and made
more efficient use of the diesel fuel being burned.

Other uses

Poor quality diesel fuel has been used as an extraction agent for liquid–liquid extraction of palladium from
nitric acid mixtures.[50] Such use has been proposed as a means of separating the fission product palladium
from PUREX raffinate which comes from used nuclear fuel.[50] In this system of solvent extraction, the
hydrocarbons of the diesel act as the diluent while the dialkyl sulfides act as the extractant.[50] This
extraction operates by a solvation mechanism.[50] So far, neither a pilot plant nor full scale plant has been
constructed to recover palladium, rhodium or ruthenium from nuclear wastes created by the use of nuclear
fuel.[51]

Diesel fuel is often used as the main ingredient in oil-base mud drilling fluid.[52] The advantage of using
diesel is its low cost and its ability to drill a wide variety of difficult strata, including shale, salt and gypsum
formations.[52] Diesel-oil mud is typically mixed with up to 40% brine water.[53] Due to health, safety and
environmental concerns, Diesel-oil mud is often replaced with vegetable, mineral, or synthetic food-grade
oil-base drilling fluids, although diesel-oil mud is still in widespread use in certain regions.[54]

During development of rocket engines in Germany during World War II J-2 Diesel fuel was used as the
fuel component in several engines including the BMW 109-718.[55] J-2 diesel fuel was also used as a fuel
for gas turbine engines.[55]
Chemical analysis

Chemical composition

In the United States, petroleum-derived diesel is composed of about

75% saturated hydrocarbons (primarily paraffins including n, iso,
and cycloparaffins), and 25% aromatic hydrocarbons (including
naphthalenes and alkylbenzenes).[56] The average chemical
formula for common diesel fuel is C12 H23 , ranging approximately
from C10 H20 to C15 H28 .[57]

Chemical properties

Most diesel fuels freeze at common winter temperatures, while the Diesel does not mix with water.
temperatures greatly vary.[58] Petrodiesel typically freezes around
temperatures of −8.1  °C (17.5  °F), whereas biodiesel freezes
between temperatures of 2° to 15 °C (35° to 60 °F).[58] The viscosity of diesel noticeably increases as the
temperature decreases, changing it into a gel at temperatures of −19  °C (−2.2  °F) to −15  °C (5  °F), that
cannot flow in fuel systems. Conventional diesel fuels vaporise at temperatures between 149  °C and
371 °C.[34]

Conventional diesel flash points vary between 52 and 96  °C, which makes it safer than petrol and
unsuitable for spark-ignition engines.[59] Unlike petrol, the flash point of a diesel fuel has no relation to its
performance in an engine nor to its auto ignition qualities.[34]

Carbon dioxide formation

As a good approximation the chemical formula of diesel is Cn H2n . Note that diesel is a mixture of different
molecules. As carbon has a molar mass of 12 g/mol and hydrogen has a molar mass of about 1 g/mol, so
the fraction by weight of carbon in EN 590 diesel fuel is roughly 12/14.

The reaction of diesel combustion is given by:

2Cn H2n + 3nO2 ⇌ 2nCO2 + 2nH2 O

Carbon dioxide has a molar mass of 44g/mol as it consists of 2 atoms of oxygen (16 g/mol) and 1 atom of
carbon (12 g/mol). So 12 g of carbon yield 44 g of Carbon dioxide.

Diesel has a density of 0.838 kg per liter.

Putting everything together the mass of carbon dioxide that is produced by burning 1 liter of diesel fuel can
be calculated as:

The figure obtained with this estimation is close to the values found in the literature.
For gasoline, with a density of 0.75  kg/l and a ratio of carbon to hydrogen atoms of about 6 to 14, the
estimated value of carbon emission if 1 liter of gasoline is burnt gives:

Source[60]

Hazards

Environment hazards of sulfur

In the past, diesel fuel contained higher quantities of sulfur. European emission standards and preferential
taxation have forced oil refineries to dramatically reduce the level of sulfur in diesel fuels. In the European
Union, the sulfur content has dramatically reduced during the last 20 years. Automotive diesel fuel is
covered in the European Union by standard EN 590. In the 1990s specifications allowed a content of 2000
ppm max of sulfur, reduced to a limit of 350 ppm by the beginning of the 21st century with the introduction
of Euro 3 specifications. The limit was lowered with the introduction of Euro 4 by 2006 to 50 ppm (ULSD,
Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel). The standard for diesel fuel in force in Europe as of 2009 is the Euro 5, with a
maximum content of 10 ppm.[61]

Emission standard At latest Sulfur content Cetane number

N/a 1 January 1994 max. 2000 ppm min. 49
Euro 2 1 January 1996 max. 500 ppm min. 49
Euro 3 1 January 2001 max. 350 ppm min. 51
Euro 4 1 January 2006 max. 50 ppm min. 51
Euro 5 1 January 2009 max. 10 ppm min. 51

In the United States, more stringent emission standards have been adopted with the transition to ULSD
starting in 2006, and becoming mandatory on June 1, 2010 (see also diesel exhaust).

Algae, microbes, and water contamination

There has been much discussion and misunderstanding of algae in diesel fuel. Algae need light to live and
grow. As there is no sunlight in a closed fuel tank, no algae can survive, but some microbes can survive and
feed on the diesel fuel.[62]

These microbes form a colony that lives at the interface of fuel and water. They grow quite fast in warmer
temperatures. They can even grow in cold weather when fuel tank heaters are installed. Parts of the colony
can break off and clog the fuel lines and fuel filters.[63]

Water in fuel can damage a fuel injection pump. Some diesel fuel filters also trap water. Water
contamination in diesel fuel can lead to freezing while in the fuel tank. The freezing water that saturates the
fuel will sometimes clog the fuel injector pump.[64] Once the water inside the fuel tank has started to freeze,
gelling is more likely to occur. When the fuel is gelled it is not effective until the temperature is raised and
the fuel returns to a liquid state.
Road hazard

Diesel is less flammable than gasoline / petrol. However, because it evaporates slowly, any spills on a
roadway can pose a slip hazard to vehicles.[65] After the light fractions have evaporated, a greasy slick is
left on the road which reduces tire grip and traction, and can cause vehicles to skid. The loss of traction is
similar to that encountered on black ice, resulting in especially dangerous situations for two-wheeled
vehicles, such as motorcycles and bicycles, in roundabouts.

See also
Common ethanol fuel mixtures
Biodiesel
Diesel automobile racing
Dieselisation
Gasoline
Gasoline gallon equivalent
Hybrid vehicle
Liquid fuel
List of diesel automobiles
Turbo-diesel
United States vs. Imperial Petroleum
Winter diesel fuel

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Biodiesel, Petrodiesel, Neat Methyl Esters, and Alkanes in a New Technology Engine†".
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Further reading
L. D. Danny Harvey, 2010, "Energy and the New Reality 1: Energy Efficiency and the
Demand for Energy Services," London:Routledge-Earthscan, ISBN 1-84407-912-0, 672 pp.;
see [3] (https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1844079120), accessed 28 September 2014.

External links
U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety & Health Administration: Safety and Health
Topics: Diesel Exhaust (https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/dieselexhaust/)

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