Using Kerosene instead of Paraffin in pressure lamps.

Over here it's just kerosene. I'm not sure what they do with it here. Have to search my memory (and it's fading fast) but I believe at one time they had what hey called K1 and K2. Maybe this is where refining came in. K1 was a more refined grade than K2. All I know is I could get what I guess would be K2 (?).
The stuff cost about $3.00 + a gallon here; that's more than a gallon of Gasoline!!When I started in this hobby many, many years ago, and I'm not making this up, I paid .10 or .12 cents a gallon!!!Good old days..

 

Oh yes, one over thing. Over here we refer to "wax, like in candle" as "paraffin"

 

Thanks for the offer ColinG, but I'm not a fan of the pre-packed 4 litre stuff and will stick to very cheap 20 litre drums of [allegedly] smelly heating oil.

 

I think the stuff that was referred to as used in the central boiler is diesel fuel more or less. Here it's referred to as home heating oil, it's basically diesel fuel in fact what we get is dyed red and also sold for off road diesel equipment. (no road tax so they put in dye, when they stop road trucks they check for dye in tank) It is basically a crude form of kerosene/paraffin in the US the next step is 1k kerosene designed for wick heaters and so forth. Then there are some more highly refined types for sale. This costs about 3USD a liter. There are places that sell bulk 1k for a bit less. You can get naptha/Colman fuel/white gas for 8 USD per gallon. So for me the cost is about the same the advantages of paraffin/kero is the lower flammability and the advantages of Colman fuel is the Cleanliness of it and that it does not soot the generator

 

When there was a fuel depot in my home town, they referred to central heating oil as kerosene. If you wanted paraffin for lamps, you asked for PREMIUM kerosene. The premium kero came in (more expensive) 4 litre pre-packs so I filled my jerry cans with cheaper central heating oil which burns well in my lamps. Yes there is an odour but I'd hardly call it a stink and "The Management" doesn't find it offensive either, so cheaper fuel and no complaints = win win.

Henry.

 

Any reduction in smell is unlikely to be due to an acid/base typechemical reaction. If it works it would be due to adsorption of the substance causing the odour onto the surface of the calcium carbonate (calcium carbonate would be insoluble in the kerosene, which would be cloudy until the particles settled or were filtered off).

Whether it works in any particular instance would depend on the stucture of the substance causing the smell.

It’s not uncommon to first think about calcium carbonate as neutralising acid and then to notice its other properties, see
Tsvett's column

 

Asbestos, in the UK, the 'home heating oil' you are referring to would be called 'Fuel Oil' and is pretty much an unrefined form of Diesel, it is also dyed red. It's still available, though I imagine most heating systems using it are well past their expiry date.

 

Yes, it strikes me that there might be a greater chance of success using activated charcoal (which has proven adsorption properties) rather than calcium carbonate, although I'm speculating. But whatever, this seems a hell of a faff-on and an expensive way to crack a pretty simple problem...

 

Colin, don’t think your idea of a bulk purchase would be of use to HD and myself, but I should let HD speak for herself. Anyone who knows me through this Forum knows that I very rarely light my lamps so only buy the occasional flask of paraffin. I know, I know, it’s sinful to keep pressure lamps just as ornaments but each to his (or her) own. If/when you call don’t expect a warm (as in all lamps lit up) welcome!

 

I think we need a "fuel-content-thread"...

One problem is the lack of standardisation in this field. In the EU you can sell a fuel as "lamp oil" if you and yourself are convinced it will burn in a lamp. No idea about the lamp and no notion about the emission or smells.
Brand names or intended use ("heating oil") are quite the same. Brand products state a name only but the contents within the same brand may change from batch to batch. Manufacturers buy what is available cheap and put their brand name on it.

So we'd need a table stating fuel contents prior to names as "paraffin or kerosene".

1. Alkanes only C10-C13 (sulphur <0,1%(per cent by weight) , cyclic hydrocarbons (de:Benzol en:Benzene and others) <0,1% )

Would be the clearest and less smelly stuff available.
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and so on, ending with jet fuels (A1... and so on), which contain lots of cyclic hydrocarbons, antifreeze, fungicides.

Will also burn nicely in some lamps but I would not like to have the stinky combustion (by-)products in the air I breathe.
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Erik

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Erik,

We are part of the way here in the UK with regards to Kerosene that is sold as Paraffin.

We have standards defining two classes of Paraffin with minimum specifications for each; Class 1 (Premium Paraffin) which is intended for the use in lamps, heaters, etc and Class 2 (28sec Heating Oil) which is intended for use as fuel for fixed whole house heating appliances.

Jet A and Jet A1 both have a strict specification. Additives should not be present in pure forms of this, but are usually added on fueling. If you can find a small airfield with a pump that dispenses Jet A, it should be free of additives.

HD

 

It is interesting to compare data sheets for C1 & C2 Paraffin, in many cases the stated values of C2 Paraffin are extremely close to those of C1.

If you want the values for the actual standard of each then you'll have to cough up as it's a British Standard. There may be libraries that offer an online copy for viewing which you can join.

HD

 

That should be Gas Oil.

 

HighlandDweller and Jean, it was just a thought, nothing more.

When I next visit Oban, their tiny airport is just outside the town on my drive in so I might pop in and ask about Jet A or Jet A1. They can only say no, but if they agree to sell me some, I can perform a combined smell and performance test.

If all else fails, I'll just carry on with the 4L pre-packaged paraffin from the filling station in town.

 

Colin, bring a big container. Most pumps (manned/unmanned) do not like to serve small quantities.
Also when a airfield guy/woman has to help you, most likely, for just a few litre they say no much faster then when you buy 25 litre.

 

Hey Wim, I intend to take a 25L plastic drum with me. It used to have domestic central heating kerosene in it anyway!

 

@ColinG

Here in Australia we have Jet A1 and they won't fill a plastic fuel container . They will only fill metal ones. When filling they earth the container to the pump to prevent static discharge. I was told the 1 refers to the antifreeze in the fuel and it has an alcohol base.
I don't know what the safety procedures are there?

 

i ran my hipolito 500 on avtur for the best part of 20 years while working at an raf base in north norfolk and it never missed a beat in all those years
i never noticed much of a smell but it only got used outside and not indoors.
sadly i got made redundant when they closed the airbase and i now have to pay for parrafin to run my lamps but luckily i found a garage that sells
parrafin from a petrol pump for less than one pound a litre on the outskirts of norwich, happy days.

 

I checked my heating kerosene experiment a couple of days ago and I have to be honest, it didn't detect any difference in ponginess so I gave it another shake and left it. I'll check again tonight and report back.

 

Oh, man. here "gas" is the universal term for petrol aka the stuff you put in non diesel cars. you say "gas oil" and you would get a blank look. Here the "#1 fuel oil" is does still have limits on sulphur content. it is supplied for earth moving equipment or any non road use diesel. Even though our heating system is WELL past it's date (it's a forced air from 1958 and has it's original burner head) The same stuff is used in the current ones. It is around 3 USD per us gallon give or take .50 there is also "stove oil"
If I were using it inside I would be concerned about benzene content also
It's like the old school names for chemicals like "oil of vitriol" for H2So4 or "corrosive sublimate" for HgCl2 I feel like I should order "1 bagfull of liver of sulpher, a tin of Sal Ammonic, and a hogshead of stove oil"

 

I'm not sure why you think that would be a problem. Assuming complete combustion (which isn't unreasonable in a properly ventilated room) then the benzene would be completely oxidised to carbon dioxide and water:-

2xC6H6 + 15xO2 -> 12xCO2 + 6xH2O

In poorly ventilated conditions where the oxygen supply is limited, the resulting carbon monoxide from the incomplete combustion of paraffin/kerosene would surely kill you long before the benzene vapour had any toxic effect...

Edit: Corrected the formula

 

only 2xC6H6 etc I think

 

If you sum up C, H and O on both sides of the equation the result shall always be the same...

BTW: I do see much more risk in ingesting the fumes at filling/emptying the tanks with benzene. A properly serviced lantern should emit almost no unburnt benzene.

 

Yes, a typo - it was late and I was tired.

The original poster (asbestos) referred to the "benzene content" as I think it's safe to assume he meant the benzene content of kerosene/paraffin (which is small) rather than using benzene itself as a fuel which would be terminally stupid, sooner or later, assuming it would even burn in a pressure lamp...

 

For the lantern it would mean almost no difference:

See the vaporisers, just the one right to the middle.

But you are right, it will not support your overall health condition over the years.
Vapours of the stuff while filling & spilling...
In case of incomplete combustion real nasty byproducts.
But it was used as fuel for lamps. Oh well, for a certain time. I did not notice such for other brands.

Erik

 

There's a BIG difference between 'benzene' (C6H6) and "benzin" which is petrol/gasoline i.e.fuel for cars. Not the same substance at all...

I've no real idea what "benzol/benzole" might be in the context of that catalogue page, except I see the French translation as "essence" i.e. car fuel - petrol/gasoline again.
Benzol - Wikipedia

Wow! Did folk really run their cars on a mixture of benzene and toluene? If they did, I'm surprised the human race managed to survive beyond those times...

 

Our mine safety lamps ran on benzene in South Africa. Burned clean with almost no soot.

 

Um, I've burned benzene on a number of occasions with the intention of getting a smoky covering on paper - this was at college in the late '60s/early '70s. Because of the high content of carbon relative to hydrogen, benzene requires much more oxygen for complete combustion i.e. all carbon oxidised to carbon dioxide.

You can see this from the equation above - 2 molecules of benzene require 15 molecules of oxygen for complete combustion. Combustion in open air doesn't provide sufficient oxygen and pure benzene burns with a dull yellow flame and much visible black smoke which is actually free carbon particles.

I'd guess your lamps had some sort of forced draught or they weren't burning pure benzene...

 

Well, I just checked my calcium carbonate infused kerosene and the smell was exactly the same as far as I could detect. I haven't run any through a lantern yet as I suspect it will stink the whole house out but I will test it one evening outside.

Assuming this test is a failure I may try David's idea that charcoal might have a greater pong reducing smell, not that I hold out much hope as I don't think there's any reliable chemistry behind either calcium carbonate or charcoal, but I guess there's a slim chance.

Looks like I'll be going back to ready packaged fuel station paraffin unless I find a source of Jet A somewhere close.

 

The lamps do have a degree of draughting. Granted, the flame was set very low so any change in oxygen or methane would alter it.