The Difference Between Fuels, and What They're Used For

You can use many types of fuels to power vehicles, heat homes, and run appliances. Read on to discover some of the most common fuels used in the United States, and what differences make each well-suited for particular applications.

Gasoline

Gasoline is the most common fuel used in passenger vehicles. It is thinner than diesel fuel, which allows the gasoline engines in these comparatively small vehicles to be lighter. The engines are also less expensive to maintain because they don't have to process thick fuel.

Despite its wide usage, gasoline isn't the most efficient motor vehicle fuel. Maintenance costs for light gasoline engines are lower than the maintenance costs of other engine types, and the savings on maintenance are usually greater than the added cost due to reduced efficiency.

You can also use gasoline in pleasure boats, primarily for the same reason why it's used in passenger cars. Keeping an engine as light as possible is especially important on smaller watercraft.

Ethanol

Ethanol is added to many grades of gasoline, which doesn't improve fuel efficiency dramatically. Non-ethanol gas actually provides more energy and better fuel efficiency. Ethanol helps gas burn more completely, however, which reduces the carbon emissions of vehicles.

As an added benefit, ethanol comes from crops like corn. These crops are renewable resources, unlike oil and gas, which are sourced from underground.

Ethanol isn't suitable for all engines, as pure gas causes less wear. For example, ethanol gasoline usually isn't used in outdoor landscaping equipment, boats, or off-road vehicles.

In passenger vehicles that have engines designed for ethanol gasoline, filling up with gas that has ethanol added makes sense.

Diesel

Diesel fuel is used instead of gasoline in larger vehicles. Diesel is much more viscous than gasoline, which allows it to provide both greater power and improved fuel efficiency. Both of these are important when driving large vehicles that transport heavy loads. Tractor-trailers, for instance, would have a difficult time operating on standard gasoline.

The low viscosity of diesel makes diesel engines more difficult to start in cold weather, which only further increases the fuel's thickness.

Trucking companies usually have facilities and equipment that can help get diesel engines started even in sub-freezing temperatures. Such equipment isn't available in general parking lots, though, so drivers of cars can be stranded if their car has a diesel engine and the weather turns cold.

What is commonly called diesel fuel and used in vehicles is officially termed "#2 diesel fuel."

Kerosene

Kerosene is officially called "#1 diesel fuel," and it is similar to the diesel that's used in trucks and other heavy equipment. Kerosene isn't formulated quite the same way as #2 diesel, however, and it's better suited for non-vehicle applications.

Specifically, you can use kerosene in some furnaces, lamps, and appliances. It burns at lower temperatures than heating oil and has become less common in furnaces and cooking appliances for that reason. Of course, electric lights replaced kerosene lamps long ago.

Despite the other options, some older homes' furnaces and appliances still use kerosene. Many antique lamps also use kerosene, and campers still rely on it for their portable stoves.

While kerosene burns at a cooler temperature than heating oil, it also burns more cleanly. This makes it particularly well suited for old-fashioned lamps, where the cleanliness improves how much light is produced by burning.

Heating Oil

Heating oil is also similar to diesel fuel, but it's usually used in furnaces. Heating oil is safe to have near homes, and it produces a lot of heat when burned.