clear colourless or dyed liquid
Diesel fuel is used for diesel or semidiesel,
high-speed engines requiring a type of fuel that has low
viscosity and moderate volatility. The heavier grades
are used for railroad and marine diesel engines.
2 DIESEL FUEL is a complex combination of hydrocarbons produced by the distillation of crude oil. It consists of hydrocarbons having carbon numbers predominantly in the range of C9 through C20 and boiling in the range of approximately 163.degree.C to 357.degree.C (325.degree.F to 675.degree.F).
Oily yellow-brown liquid. Less dense than water and insoluble in water. Hence floats on water.
Flammable. Insoluble in water.
May be incompatible with strong oxidizing agents like nitric acid. Charring may occur followed by ignition of unreacted material and other nearby combustibles. In other settings, mostly unreactive. Not affected by aqueous solutions of acids, alkalis, most oxidizing agents, and most reducing agents. When heated sufficiently or when ignited in the presence of air, oxygen or strong oxidizing agents, burns exothermically to produce mostly carbon dioxide and water.
INHALATION causes headache and slight giddiness. INGESTION causes nausea, vomiting, and cramping; depression of central nervous system ranging from mild headache to anesthesia, coma, and death; pulmonary irritation secondary to exhalation of solvent; signs of kidney and liver damage may be delayed. ASPIRATION causes severe lung irritation with coughing, gagging, dyspnea, substernal distress, and rapidly developing pulmonary edema; later, signs of bronchopneumonia and pneumonitis; acute onset of central nervous system excitement followed by depression.
Flammability and Explosibility
Non flammable
Low toxicity by
ingestion. A skin irritant. Questionable
carcinogen. When heated to decomposition
it emits acrid smoke and irritating vapors.
