When cars were originally being made and designed, why was “gasoline” used rather than crude oil, especially since it was what came from the Earth?

Question

Cars today run on “gasoline” which has the hydrocarbons that work with the air and make the combustion possible, but why design engines like this, especially since the refining process is so arduous? Would it not have been easier and more logical to try using the crude oil straight from the Earth?

In: 16

Answer 1

Originally it’s because gasoline was cheap.

The first uses for oil was kerosene as a replacement for whale oil in lamps, tar to replace that made from trees, and paraffin wax. Those are the heavier things in the oil and all the lighter stuff like methane, propane, and gasoline was mostly either burned off or just dumped.

Gasoline is easier to vaporize and burn than heavy fuels like kerosene. That means it was a natural choice to fuel the small engines in early cars, and the oil companies were happy to collect and sell something they used to throw away.

At the end of the 19th century, catalytic cracking was developed which let us split the tars and waxes into liquid fuels and production of gasoline and diesel fuel really took off.

Answer 2

Originally it’s because gasoline was cheap.

The first uses for oil was kerosene as a replacement for whale oil in lamps, tar to replace that made from trees, and paraffin wax. Those are the heavier things in the oil and all the lighter stuff like methane, propane, and gasoline was mostly either burned off or just dumped.

Gasoline is easier to vaporize and burn than heavy fuels like kerosene. That means it was a natural choice to fuel the small engines in early cars, and the oil companies were happy to collect and sell something they used to throw away.

At the end of the 19th century, catalytic cracking was developed which let us split the tars and waxes into liquid fuels and production of gasoline and diesel fuel really took off.