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diesel fuel
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Also known as: diesel oil
four-stroke diesel engine
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diesel fuel, also called diesel oil, combustible liquid used as fuel for diesel engines, ordinarily obtained from fractions of crude oil that are less volatile than the fractions used in gasoline. In diesel engines the fuel is ignited not by a spark, as in gasoline engines, but by the heat of air compressed in the cylinder, with the fuel injected in a spray into the hot compressed air. Diesel fuel releases more energy on combustion than equal volumes of gasoline, so diesel engines generally produce better fuel economy than gasoline engines. In addition, the production of diesel fuel requires fewer ...(100 of 613 words)