Kerosene explosion for story?

Question

Would kerosene explode if you lit a match over an open container full of it? Or maybe if you dropped the match in it? It's for a story I'm writing. This part will hopefully be set at night.

Answer 1

jet fuel is kerosene and it only explodes when it is spayed in a fine mist as in a crash.  this happens only because much of it is vaporized

Answer 2

Unfortunately for your story, it wouldn't!

Flammable liquids are not quite what they seem. People tend to presume (as I used to) that the liquid itself burns - no, but what happens is the liquid creates a vapour that burns.

This vapour is natural, and is greated when the liquid reaches a temperature called "flashpoint". This temperature doesn't have to be much. In fact, for gasoline/petrol, it's actually -40 degrees C!

Notice when you go to the service station and fuel up a car, the fumes that rise from the petrol? If you light a match, these fumes will burn. Not the petrol. So the only way to stop petrol from igniting is to lower it to that flashpoint.

Now...kerosene is a much different liquid. It's like diesel - thicker and has a much higher flashpoint. So, like diesel, kerosene has to be heated to burn - which is why diesel cars need to use glowplugs - a spark from a sparkplug won't heat the fuel but a glow will!

So the problem is, since kero isn't naturally at flashpoint, if you hold a lit match over it, it won't ignite...and believe it or not, but chances are if you drop a match in it, the match will be extinquished! But at the same time, drop a match in gasoline at a cold enough temperature and the same will happen.

Anyhow - to sum up, unfortunately no, kero won't explode...but if you can write gasoline or petrol into the story, it will be ok!

Or you can hope people don't know this stuff!  

Answer 3

If its an open barrel, then probably not. If it is in a restricted space (such as in a sealed barrel, then probably yes.

I think of it like gun powder: if left out and lit, it will just burn. Put it in an enclosed space, light it, it will be like explosion.

Hope it helped.