Lamp Oil

Basics

• This page goes over the various oils that can be used for a Wick based Oil Lamp
• Mainly the difference between Kerosene and Paraffin Lamp Oil
• Also will discuss the viability of using Plant Oils and Pyrolysis Oil directly
• Also performance comparisons to Gas Mantle Lanterns using similar liquid fuels

Main Factors

• Capillary Flow in a wick is largely a function of Viscosity, Gravity, and the Porosity of the Wick
• Modeling of Wick Behavior is probably a worthwhile page to cover this in detail
  • Also relevant to:
    • Candles
    • Certain Liquid Fuel Stoves
    • Chafing Fuel / Emergency Heat
    • Oil Candles such as the insert for UCO Candle Lanterns etc

Flash Point

• Kerosene:
• Paraffin Oil:
• Ethanol:

Viscosity

• Looking into ASTM / ISO Cold Flow / Gel Point tests/standards may be of use

Sulfur Content

• Largely Irrelevant in the Era of ULSD and even HFO that as per IMO 2020 has limited Sulfur Content, BUT
• In the past Off Road Diesel and Kerosene were allowed to have a higher sulfur (compound) limit
  • THUS if burned they released Sulfur Oxides and all sorts of nasties/smells
  • Thus “Klean Heat” and “Kerosene Alternatives” were offered which were essentially Hydro-desulfurization / Hydrotreated Kerosine
• Given ULSD and 1-K Kerosene / K-1 Kerosene are now STANDARD these are largely redundant products
• GRANTED SDS Citation + Third Party Lab Testing would be nice to be sure

Chemical Structure

• Alkenes
• Chain Length / C1 vs C10 vs C20 etc

Air-Fuel Ratio

• This is harder to vary in a lantern, thus some fuels may be incompatible
• Addition of Oxygenate Fuels such as Fuel Alcohols thus may be beneficial
  • This hypothesis may be wrong though if the increased performance is due only to the less intuitive Viscosity and Vaporization/Flash Point Impacts
    • Akin to Diesel-Gasoline Fuel Mixtures for usage in Drip Torches or Pressure Lanterns etc

Internal Links

• Kerosene Lamp ( Kerosene Lantern ) / Hurricane Lamp
• Incandescent Oil Vapor Lamp / Pressure Lamp with a properly sized/maintained Nozzle and Pressure Lantern Generator

External Links

• The Wikipedia Page on Kerosene
• The Wikipedia Page on Oil Lamps (Covers historical usage of animal fat, plant oils)
• A Page by the "United States Lighthouse Society" Titled "Lamp Glossary of Terms"
• Excerpts from Various Sources Around the Time Oil Lamps were Adopted (Even mention whale oil, wild how that was a thing that happened) (supposedly something resembling Canola Oil worked fine, so this seems promising)
• Red Hill General Store
• Not too scientific about it, but decent overview