Stinky kerosene?
 

In a recent thread, the smell of kerosene or diesel fuel was mentioned.
I think I read somewhere that they deoderize kero to make "lamp oil"
by running it through powdered limestone. Is there any truth to that?

Pete Stanaitis

Stinky kerosene?
 

spaco writes:

In a recent thread, the smell of kerosene or diesel fuel was mentioned.
I think I read somewhere that they deoderize kero to make "lamp oil"
by running it through powdered limestone. Is there any truth to that?

The odor being deodorized is sulfur, whether free or part of the fuel
molecules, which smells bad in the fuel, smells bad after combustion in the
fumes, and is always present in varying degrees in the crude feedstock.

There's a limit to sulfur in motor fuels because it's a pollutant, but that
limit is not tight enough to deodorize indoor burning in a lamp. Thus
additional purification is needed, for which many processes are available.