Liquid fuels are those combustible or energy-generating molecules that can be harnessed to create mechanical energy, usually producing kinetic energy; they also must take the shape of their container. Most liquid fuels, in widespread use, are or derived from fossil fuels; however, there are several types, such as hydrogen fuel (for automotive uses), which are also categorized as a liquid fuel. It is the fumes of Liquid fuels that are flammable instead of the fluid.

This article deals primarily with the concept of liquid fuels in relation to ground transport. However, others such as rocket fuel also play an important role in the economy.

Petroleum[link]

Most liquid fuels used currently are produced from petroleum. The most notable of these is gasoline. Scientists generally accept that petroleum formed from the fossilized remains of dead plants and animals by exposure to heat and pressure in the Earth's crust.

Gasoline[link]

Gasoline is the most widely used liquid fuel. Gasoline, as it is known in United States and Canada, or petrol in India, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and many other Commonwealth countries, is made of hydrocarbon molecules forming aliphatic compounds, or chains of carbons with hydrogen atoms attached. However, many aromatic compounds (carbon chains forming rings) such as benzene are found naturally in gasoline and cause the health risks associated with prolonged exposure to the fuel.

Production of gasoline is achieved by distillation of crude oil. The desirable liquid is separated from the crude oil in refineries. Crude oil is extracted from the ground in several processes, the most commonly seen may be beam pumps. To create gasoline, petroleum must first be removed from crude oil.

Liquid gasoline itself is not actually burned, but its fumes ignite, causing the remaining liquid to evaporate and then burn. Gasoline is extremely volatile and easily combusts, making any leakage potentially extremely dangerous. Gasoline sold in most countries carries a published octane rating. The octane number is an empirical measure of the resistance of gasoline to combusting prematurely, known as knocking. The higher the octane rating, the more resistant the fuel is to autoignition under high pressures, which allows for a higher compression ratio. Engines with a higher compression ratio, commonly used in race cars and high-performance regular-production automobiles, can produce more power; however, such engines require a higher octane fuel.

Diesel[link]

Conventional diesel is similar to gasoline in that it is a mixture of aliphatic hydrocarbons extracted from petroleum. Diesel may cost more or less than gasoline, but generally costs less to produce because the extraction processes used are simpler. Many countries (particularly in Europe, as well as Canada) also have lower tax rates on diesel fuels.

After distillation, the diesel fraction is normally processed to reduce the amount of sulfur in the fuel. Sulphur causes corrosion in vehicles, acid rain and higher emissions of soot from the tail pipe (exhaust pipe). Historically, in Europe lower sulfur levels than in the United States were legally required. However, recent US legislation reduced the maximum sulphur content of diesel from 3,000 ppm to 500 ppm in 2007, and 15 ppm by 2010. Similar changes are also underway in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and several Asian countries. See also Ultra-low-sulfur diesel.

A diesel engine is a type of internal combustion engine which ignites fuel by injecting it into a combustion chamber previously compressed with air (which in turn raises the temperature) as opposed to using an outside ignition source, such as a spark plug.

Kerosene[link]

Kerosene, once used in kerosene lamps as an alternative to whale oil, is today mainly used in fuel for jet engines (more technically Avtur, Jet A, Jet A-1, Jet B, JP-4, JP-5, JP-7 or JP-8). One form of the fuel known as RP-1 is burned with liquid oxygen as rocket fuel. These fuel grade kerosenes meet specifications for smoke points and freeze points.

In the mid-20th century, kerosene or "TVO" (Tractor Vaporising Oil) was used as a cheap fuel for tractors. The engine would start on gasoline, then switch over to kerosene once the engine warmed up. A "heat valve" on the manifold would route the exhaust gases around the intake pipe, heating the kerosene to the point where it can be ignited by an electric spark.

Kerosene is sometimes used as an additive in diesel fuel to prevent gelling or waxing in cold temperatures. However, this is not advisable in some recent vehicle diesel engines, as doing so may interfere with the engine's emissions regulation equipment.

Natural gas & Liquified Petroleum gas[link]

Compressed Natural Gas[link]

Natural gas, composed chiefly of methane, can be compressed to a liquid and used as a substitute for other traditional liquid fuels. Its combustion is very clean compared to other hydrocarbon fuels, but the fuel's low boiling point requires the fuel to be kept at high pressures to keep it in the liquid state. Though it has a much lower flash point than fuels such as gasoline, it is in many ways safer due to its higher autoignition temperature and its low density, which causes it to dissipate when released in air.

Liquified Petroleum gas[link]

LP gas is a mixture of propane and butane, both of which are easily-compressible gases under standard atmospheric conditions. It offers many of the advantages of compressed natural gas (CNG), but is denser than air, does not burn as cleanly, and is much more easily compressed. Commonly used for cooking and space heating, LP gas and compressed propane are seeing increased use in motorized vehicles; propane is the third most commonly used motor fuel globally.

Non-petroleum fossil fuels[link]

When petroleum is not easily available, chemical processes such as the Fischer-Tropsch process can be used to produce liquid fuels from coal and/or natural gas. dr.Pier Luigi Caffese to new energy plan 2012Italian Govern introduce the concept of new non fossil liquid fuel,like: -windfuel from offshore wind -waterfuel from phs hydro or modular hydro -peak fuel from excess power -marine sea water fuel from marine phs -algae,marine plants fuel from big marine lakes(Caffese patent) -solar reactor fuels on marine lakes -fish fuels from marine fish farms on marine lake -alpine phs fuels -underground phs fuels -glucose biobutanol fuels -CARMA fuels sinergies Rgas-refuels (US see Doe-ARPA-E non fossil fuels, NASA marine plants fuel;Navy biofuels-aviation fuels,MIT glucose biobutanol,Doty Energy) (Europe see European Commissioner-Energy,MSE Italian Secretary Energy)

Biodiesel[link]

Biodiesel is similar to diesel, but has differences akin to those between petrol and ethanol. For instance, biodiesel has a higher cetane rating (45-60 compared to 45-50 for crude-oil-derived diesel) and it acts as a cleaning agent to get rid of dirt and deposits. It has been argued that it only becomes economically feasible above oil prices of $80 (£40 or €60 as of late February, 2007) per barrel. This does however depend on locality, economic situation, government stance on biodiesel and a host of other factors- and it has been proven to be viable at much lower costs in some countries. Also, it yields about 10% less energy than ordinary diesel. Analogous to the use of higher compression ratios used for engines burning higher octane alcohols and petrol in spark-ignition engines, taking advantage of biodiesel's high cetane rating can potentially overcome the energy deficit compared to ordinary Number 2 diesel.

Alcohols[link]

Generally, the term alcohol refers to ethanol, the first organic chemical produced by humans,^[1] but any alcohol can be burned as a fuel. Ethanol and methanol are the most common, being sufficiently inexpensive to be useful.

Methanol[link]

Methanol is the lightest and simplest alcohol, produced from the natural gas component methane. Its application is limited primarily due to its toxicity (similar to gasoline), but also due to its high corrosivity and miscibility with water. Small amounts are used in some gasolines to increase the octane rating. Methanol-based fuels are used in some race cars and model airplanes.

Methanol is also called methyl alcohol or wood alcohol, the latter because it was formerly produced from the distillation of wood. It is also known by the name methyl hydrate.

Ethanol[link]

Ethanol, also known as grain alcohol or ethyl alcohol, is most commonly used in alcoholic beverages. However, it may also be used as a fuel, most often in combination with gasoline. For the most part, it is used in a 9:1 ratio of gasoline to ethanol to reduce the negative environmental effects of gasoline.^{[citation needed]}

There is increasing interest in the use of a blend of 85% fuel ethanol blended with 15% gasoline. This fuel blend called E85, has a higher fuel octane than most premium gasolines. When used in a modern Flexible fuel vehicle, it delivers more performance to the gasoline it replaces at the expense of higher fuel consumption due to ethanol's lesser specific energy content.^[2]

Ethanol for use in gasoline and industrial purposes may be considered a fossil fuel because it is often synthesized from the petroleum product ethylene, which is cheaper than production from fermentation of grains or sugarcane.

Butanol[link]

Butanol is an alcohol which can be used as a fuel in most gasoline internal combustion engines without engine modification. It is typically a product of the fermentation of biomass by the bacterium Clostridium acetobutylicum (also known as the Weizmann organism). This process was first delineated by Chaim Weizmann in 1916 for the production of acetone from starch for making cordite, a smokeless gunpowder.

The advantages of butanol are its high octane rating (over 100) and high energy content, only about 10% lower than gasoline, and subsequently about 50% more energy-dense than ethanol, 100% more so than methanol. Butanol's only major disadvantages are its high flashpoint (95 °F or 35 °C), toxicity (note that toxicity levels exist but are not precisely confirmed), and the fact that the fermentation process for renewable butanol emits a foul odour. The Weizmann organism can only tolerate butanol levels up to 2% or so, compared to 14% for ethanol and yeast. Making butanol from oil produces no such odour, but the limited supply and environmental impact of oil usage defeats the purpose of alternative fuels. The cost of butanol is about $0.57-$0.58 per pound ($1250–$1320 per metric ton or $4 approx. per US gallon). Butanol is much more expensive than ethanol (approx. $1.50 per gallon) and methanol.

On June 20, 2006, DuPont and BP announced that they were converting an existing ethanol plant to produce 9 million gallons of butanol per year from sugar beets. DuPont stated a goal of being competitive with oil at $30–$40 per barrel without subsidies, so the price gap with ethanol is narrowing.

Hydrogen[link]

Liquified hydrogen is the liquid state of the element hydrogen. It is a common liquid rocket fuel for rocket applications and can be used as a fuel in an internal combustion engine or fuel cell. Various concept hydrogen vehicles have been lower volumetric energy, the hydrogen volumes needed for combustion are large. Hydrogen was liquefied for the first time by James Dewar in 1898.

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Nitrogen[link]

Liquified nitrogen is the liquid state of the element nitrogen. It is a commonly occurring gas on earth and prototypes for heat exchange engines have been demonstrated. The downside at the moment regarding it's use lies in production, distribution and transitioning infrastructure costs.

Utilizing nitrogen as a fuel could lead to development of liquid argon engines due to sheer abundance and ready solubility in water. See Ion thruster#Propellants

Properties Of Liquid Fuels[link]

Some common properties of liquid fuels are that they are easy to transport, and can be handled with relative ease. Also they are relatively easy to use for all engineering applications, and home use. (Fuels like Kerosene are rationed and available in government subsidized shops in India for home use.) Liquid fuels are also used most popularly in Internal combustion engines.

Some technically important properties include: flash point, fire point, cloud point, and pour point.

References[link]