Kerosene is a light, clean-burning fuel used for heating, jet engines, and some lamps and stoves. It sits between gasoline and diesel in weight.
Kerosene is a refined product lighter than diesel and heavier than gasoline. It burns clean and steady, which is why it has so many uses: home heating, portable heaters, lamps and stoves, and, in a jet-grade form, the fuel that runs aircraft engines. The common home grade is called K-1.
In cold country it earns its keep blended into heating oil and diesel. Kerosene resists gelling, the thickening that can choke a fuel line in deep cold, so adding it helps winter fuel keep flowing.
Like other heating fuels, kerosene used off the road owes no highway tax, and that untaxed grade is often dyed to show it. A seller tracks dyed and clear kerosene separately, the same way it does with diesel, because they carry different taxes even though the fuel is the same.
In useThe store sells clear K-1 kerosene for portable heaters, and the jobber blends dyed kerosene into the winter heating oil so it will not gel on the coldest nights.
See also Heating oil, Dyed diesel