Run an injection engine on kerosene?

[HairyHarry (imported)]

With a lowered compression ratio, would it be possible to run a gasoline injection engine on kerosene without preheating, as was needed in the olden days with carburettors? Object is to reduce the cost of running a large genset.

[nonuts (imported)]

Quick answer: Yes for a very short period of time. But lowering the compression ratio would have little to do with it. Gasoline engines whether direct injection, port injection, or sequential injection or carborated, require spark to fire. The issue with running something like kerosene with a spark plug is that it tends to foul the plug, it's too oily. Also, most injection systems for gasoline can't vaporise oily fuels like kerosene because they operate at such low pressure.

Wasn't aware kerosene was that much cheaper than gasoline?

You could run a diesel engine on kerosene with very little trouble.

[streetglide (imported)]

Don't be so sure about that! I've got a 1940 Farmall H that you start on gasoline and once warmed up you switch over to kerosene. It is just a standard spark ignition engine with lower compression than its gasoline only counterparts.

There's no road tax on kerosene, but in these parts it's still not much cheaper than diesel fuel....how 'bout propane, no road tax, extremely clean burning, doesn't have long term storage problems, and you can hook up the tank to the grill on the weekend! Just my 2 cents!

[radar (imported)]

Adjectives often being relative things, can you please define "large"? Are we talking tens of KW? Hundreds? More?

Also, with recip-driven gensets, load can be a factor. How heavily loaded does it normally run?

[ramses (imported)]

Economically, you'd be better off with a diesel generator while making your own biodiesel. A natural gas setup would be cheaper as well.

[devi (imported)]

Just pure crude straight from the well would be better than kerosene to put into your gasoline tank. It's got pentane (if you use it before the day gets hot) and the magical ingredients of hexane and decahexane. Plus crude also has kerosene. If you do happen to leave some pentane in your fuel tank and your car blows up then you'll know the day is too hot and it's time for a siesta.

[HairyHarry (imported)]

My thanks to all for their help. Further research suggests that a vintage design diesel running on gas oil would be my best option. Generator would be about 2 to 4 KW. Waste vegetable oil might cost about 13p/litre or $1.14/ US gallon. Over here, gasoline and diesel would be about $8/US gall, gas oil about $3.25/US gall

[Uncle Flo (imported)]

A little quick research on my part shows that the Lister pattern stationary/marine diesels run well on almost any liquid with a high enough flash point/vapor point. That includes most distillate fuels such as kerosene. They will not run on heavy oils such as number 4 fuel oil or bunker C or residual oils as these can not be vaporized without being pre-heated (some can't even be pumped without heating). Engines of this design are still being manufactured in India. --FLO--

[jemagirl (imported)]

In the early days engineers had to design vehicles that could run on a wider variety of fuels than most cars of today. It is interesting that we are now returning to the idea of flex fuel cars.

The Stanley Steamers were known for being able to burn a wide variety of liquid fuels in their boilers... they were also known for blowing up on occasion.

Diesel engines, can run on fuel made from all kinds of different stuff. As long as it doesn't clog the injector and will go off when the piston reaches the end of the cylinder, but don't ever try to run one off of gasoline though. Unless you want to watch the engine tear itself to pieces.

Gasoline engines are somewhat flexible about what goes in the tank as long as it can fully mix with the air, the stoichiometry is correct and the plug can light it off. I agree with nonuts about the plug fouling problem. Oddly enough I've seen engines run on gasoline that was so old it was more like shellac than fuel. I have also heard from some old-time mechanics who swear that they used to pour a little diesel down the carburetor to blow out all the carbon buildup in the engine.

The blow-by from the kerosene would also tend to dilute your engine oil. Gasoline does as well but most of it gets cooked back out and returned through positive crankcase ventilation. I suspect once the kerosene got into the oil it would tend to stay there.