Does jet fuel smell like diesel?
What does jet fuel smell like? A lot like kerosene with just a hint of Diesel.
They are generally colorless liquids and smell like kerosene. JP-4, the first wide cut standardized jet fuel came into use in 1951 and an improved version called JP-8 was developed in 1978.
Jet-A, the most common type of jet fuel, is made from kerosene and is similar to diesel fuel. Avgas is similar to what you use in your car, but it's not intended for that use. Other discussion points in the conversation about jet fuel vs. gasoline are discussed below.
The most common occasion when the airplane smells like fuel is during pushback from the gate, but it can happen anywhere on the ground. The reason is that the air conditioning on an airliner works by tapping off some air from the compressor stage in the engines.
Aviation fuels are all hydrocarbons that have fairly strong natural odors, so no additives are necessary to give them a noticeable smell. Jet-A1 is refined kerosene, which has a distinctive smell which some find unpleasant and others not.
Airport personnel are at risk of occupational exposure to jet engine emissions, which similarly to diesel exhaust emissions include volatile organic compounds and particulate matter consisting of an inorganic carbon core with associated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and metals.
Studies of military personnel suggest that exposure to JP-8 may affect the nervous system. Studies in laboratory animals suggest that exposure to these jet fuels can also cause damage to the liver, immune system, and the skin.
Jet fuel is very similar to diesel fuel, and in some cases, may be used in diesel engines.
There are two main types of aviation fuel used in general aviation: jet fuel and AVGAS. Jet fuel is a refined kerosene-based, clear or straw-colored liquid that is primarily used to power turbine engines, such as turboprop and jet engines.
H2 is perceived as an attractive alternative aviation fuel both in recent and past research as it has a great supply potential, contains three times the energy content per weight of traditional jet kerosene (43.2 MJ/kg vs 120 MJ/kg respectively) and does not produce CO2 from combustion.
Why do I keep smelling diesel fumes?
An olfactory hallucination (phantosmia) makes you detect smells that aren't really there in your environment. The odors you notice in phantosmia are different from person to person and may be foul or pleasant.
They discovered that, like many scents, it brings people back to some of the best times of their lives. "We were pleased to discover that the number one emotion that is evoked when smelling jet fuel is excitement," the website says.

When oil or hydraulic fluid contaminates the air supply system, you will notice an unpleasant and unusual smell (“fumes”). Oil fumes are often described as smelling like “dirty socks,” or as being musty, moldy, or foul. Hydraulic fluid fumes often have a distinctive acrid odor.
Jet-A (freeze point of -40°C) and Jet-A1 (freeze point of -47°C) are highly refined kerosene-type fuels used in commercial and general aviation turbine engines.
Although aviation fuels are sterile when first produced, they inevitably become contaminated with microorganisms that are omnipresent in both air and water. Microorganisms found in aviation jet fuels include bacteria, yeasts and fungi.
The Jet A fuel flash point specification is 100°F minimum, and other fuels are different. For example, JP-5 specification is 140°F, which means that the fluid has to be heated to at least 140°F in order to give off enough vapors to be flammable.
Studies examining the absorption of jet fuels through the skin have shown that damage to the skin and the longer jet fuels stays on your skin will increase the amount of chemicals that will enter your body. Once jet fuels enter your body, the chemicals in the fuel will be distributed throughout your body.
Inhalation of jet fuel vapors may cause respiratory-tract irrita tion. Severe chemical pneumonitis, possibly with hemor rhagic pulmonary edema, has been produced by ingestion of other liquid petroleum products with subsequent vomiting and pulmonary aspiration of gastric contents.
fuels can enter the body through the lungs, digestive tract, or skin. components of the fuels that can pass into the bloodstream are not known, but for some components it can be significant. skin contact will increase the amount absorbed through the skin.
You might want to use Dawn dish soap for an initial wash then a second one of your choice. Dawn is extreamly good at removing petroleum products and that is what jet fuel is.
What are the hazards of jet fuel?
May cause respiratory irritation. Specific target organ toxicity - single exposure STOT - single exposure May cause nausea, headache, dizziness and intoxication. Anaesthetic in high concentrations. Aspiration hazard Aspiration hazard May be fatal if swallowed and enters airways.
Jet-A is closer to kerosene and Diesel #1. Most modern diesel engines specify Diesel #2. 4. The viscosity specifications for the two fuels is different.
Jet fuel is a gas turbine fuel used in propeller and jet aircraft and helicopters. It has a low viscosity at low temperature, has limited ranges of density and calorific value, burns cleanly, and remains chemically stable when heated to high temperature.
Engine Weight considerations:
The diesel engine mount will most probably also be heavier than one needed for a gasoline engine. This increased total engine weight over a gasoline engine means proportionally decreased payload for the aircraft they are installed into.
There are still some big differences between diesel and Jet-A. For starters, there's a higher level of sulfur and other additives-including cetane, and the cetane number-in Jet-A than is allowed in your diesel. This could lead to fines and may even damage your engine.
With its higher flash point, kerosene offers higher octane ratings to achieve greater power and efficiency when compared to its gasoline counterpart. In fact, this is the main reason kerosene fuel is used in airplanes. For decades, airplanes originally used gasoline.
Economies of Scale
Jet-A is used in a much higher volume than 100LL. All the jet engine commercial aircraft each day burn through orders of magnitude more Jet-A than piston aircraft burn through 100LL. That means that there is a much higher production volume, and therefore a cost savings as a result.
JP-5 is the U.S. Navy's primary jet fuel, and JP-8 is one of the jet fuels used by the U.S. Air Force. Both JP-5 and JP-8 are colorless liquids and smell like kerosene, flammable and toxic for human. JP-5 and JP-8 can be made from refining crude petroleum oil deposits found underground and under the ocean floor.
Jet Fuel Cost by Aircraft Cabin Size
For example, on May 11, 2022, the IATA per gallon price was $4.82 in North America, $4.01 in Europe, and $3.55 in Asia. At Boston's Hanscomb Field Jet A was selling between $9.79 and $13.38 per gallon. In Oklahoma City it was as low as $7.05 per gallon.
Smelling diesel fuel from your furnace when it runs is usually the product of an oil-based furnace burning off an excessive amount of fuel. When too much oil is put in your system, it will build up to create a fog that is highly flammable.
Why does my house smell like diesel fumes?
If you smell fuel odor in your home, check all of the connecting points within your furnace system to see if you can identify where the problem area is. You can also look for any noticeable stains on the ground in an area such as your basement.
Breathing in diesel exhaust can cause lung irritation and/or an allergic reaction causing asthma (wheezing and difficult breathing), or making pre-existing asthma worse. Other symptoms may include feeling lightheaded, headache, or nausea. Long term exposure may lead to serious health effects.
Although kerosene oil is very safe and stable if handled correctly, it does have a distinctive pungent, oily smell. If un-burnt kerosene oil is accidentally spilled, it can lead to a very strong odor, especially if the spill happened in a closed area (inside your home, for example).
This is because the biological process of numbing our nerves activates the mesolimbic pathway, known as the brain's reward pathway. Every time our olfactory nerves receive a dose of benzene, the mesolimbic system releases dopamine molecules – one of the pleasure, feel-good hormones – thereby inviting addiction.
It smells like what it is. Maybe fuel oil more than gasoline.” He explained that the detergent served as an emulsifier that made the fire from the gasoline gel stick to whatever or whomever it was burning. He also recommended the addition of detergent to anyone making Molotov cocktails.
DEHYDRATION
Very often, you forget to drink water when you are at the airport due to all the things you need to do before getting on your seat, this lack of water in your body is the main reason that leads to dehydration. What's worse, when you get dehydrated you also get bad breath.
The distinct smell inside commercial airplanes is often attributed to jet fuel. During flight, commercial airplanes burn a mixture of jet fuel and oxygen in their engines to produce propulsion. When jet fuel burns, it creates odorous vapors that may enter the cabin. Commercial airplanes often suck in air from outside.
More recently, it has been determined that the chemical responsible for much of the odor in air along certain seashores is dimethyl sulfide, released by microbes. Salts generally do not dissolve in air, but can be carried by sea spray in the form of particulate matter.
The primary reason is gasoline is more efficient. It vaporizes easily (below boiling point of water), burns faster and more completely. On top of that, it is cleaner burning than kerosene. Kerosene is closer to diesel fuel and is less refined.
Prices for the kerosene-based product have been climbing since December, propelled by diminished supplies after winter storms shut down refineries. Swelling demand has also pushed up prices, as millions of Chinese travelers took to the skies to celebrate the Lunar New Year and newfound freedom from Covid restrictions.
Can you ignite jet fuel with a match?
As far as the ease of igniting jet fuel, while that's mostly unrelated to the voltage required to create a spark across a given distance of air, it's actually not that easy to ignite. At standard air pressure, you can drop a lit match in a bucket of jet fuel and it will just extinguish the match.
Veterans Say U.S. Navy Sailors Have Been Drinking Jet-Fuel-Contaminated Water.
Although it sounds alarming, a fuel dump (officially known as fuel jettison) is a safe procedure -- and done for good reasons. And it's not as wasteful as it seems, either. Airlines find that fuel dumping can actually be cheaper than not dumping in certain circumstances.
Fuel dumping (or a fuel jettison) is a procedure used by aircraft in certain emergency situations before a return to the airport shortly after takeoff, or before landing short of the intended destination (emergency landing) to reduce the aircraft's weight.
Jet A liquid contains molecules with between 4 and 20 carbon atoms. What makes jet fuel explosive? The liquid fuel is not explosive by itself. Explosive conditions are created when the fuel evaporates and mixes with the air in a partially empty tank.
This means that jet fuel can reach higher temperatures before it combusts, up to about 300°F (149°C) for Jet A and 500°F (260°C) for Jet B. So when comparing the heat of jet fuel and gasoline based on combustion temperature alone, jet fuel burns hotter than gasoline.
FUEL TYPES | ||
---|---|---|
Jet A | ||
FBOs | Avg | |
Nationwide | 3627 | $6.17 |
Alaska | 79 | $7.61 |
The sweet smell of 100LL AvGas is due in large part—if not entirely—to the additive Tetraethyllead (TEL).
The most common cause of a kerosene odor in the house is the presence of petroleum products like paint or oil. When drying paint mixes with traces of natural gas in the air (from your stove, water boiler, etc.), it produces an odor similar to kerosene. It's not dangerous - just thoroughly air out your house.
Jet-A powers modern commercial airliners and is a mix of extremely refined kerosene and burns at temperatures at or above 49 °C (120 °F). Kerosene-based fuel has a much higher flash point than gasoline-based fuel, meaning that it requires significantly higher temperature to ignite.
Which hazardous gas has a sweet odor smell?
Benzene is a colorless liquid with a sweet odor. It evaporates into the air very quickly and dissolves slightly in water. It is highly flammable and is formed from both natural processes and human activities.
Gasoline contains almost 150 chemicals, including benzene, which has a sweet smell, according to the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). The smell of benzene is so potent that a person can begin to whiff it at 0.25 parts of gasoline per million parts of air (ppm), the ATSDR states.
If you are smelling diesel coming from your furnace, like what might put in your car, it's probably because there is too much oil in your system.
Petrol or diesel tastes or smells can be caused by fuel or heating oil which has been spilled or leaked on to the ground. These chemicals can travel through plastic water pipes and contaminate your water supply. Fuel contamination is usually as a result of leaking fuel storage tanks or fuel spills.
The octane ratings of AVGAS, a gasoline-based fuel, are usually either 91 or 100 (lean mixture) and 96 or 130 (rich mixture). The octane rating of jet fuel is much lower, around 15 – this is much more like automotive diesel and thus much more resistant to detonating due to sparks or compression.
Jet fuel or aviation turbine fuel (ATF, also abbreviated avtur) is a type of aviation fuel designed for use in aircraft powered by gas-turbine engines. It is colorless to straw-colored in appearance.