• Question: Does diesel blow-up?

    Asked by tobyneilson to Andrew, Daniel, Hayley, Natalia, Peta on 17 Nov 2011.
    • Photo: Peta Foster

      Peta Foster answered on 17 Nov 2011:

      Diesel is flammable but does not explode. In that way it is a much safer fuel as compared to petrol which would explode. 🙂

    • Photo: Daniel Scully

      Daniel Scully answered on 17 Nov 2011:

      Diesel does ignite (blow-up) but not as easily as petrol.

      In a petrol car a “spark-plug” uses electricity to create a small spark and this ignites the petrol.

      In a diesel car you compress the fuel using a piston (so it’s at high pressure) and then heat the diesel using a “glow-plug” and then it ignites.

    • Photo: Hayley Smith

      Hayley Smith answered on 17 Nov 2011:

      Yup, it’s as Peta and Daniel neatly put it.
      Diesel ignites when compressed and heated – this is one reason you can’t jump start a diesel car.

    • Photo: Andrew Cairns

      Andrew Cairns answered on 17 Nov 2011:

      Only commenting to note that how ‘explodable’ a solvent is is called the flash point. If you have a high pressure of any heated flammable solvent it will explode, the same is true for diesel, but at a much higher temperature/pressure than petrol.

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