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Coal oil
Oil derived from coal / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Coal oil is a shale oil obtained from the destructive distillation of cannel coal, mineral wax, or bituminous shale, once used widely for illumination.[1]
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Chemically similar to the more refined, petroleum-derived kerosene, it consists mainly of several hydrocarbons of the alkane series, with 10 to 16 carbon atoms in each molecule, with a boiling point of 175 to 325 °C (347 to 617 °F), higher than gasoline or the petroleum ethers, and lower than the oils.
Because kerosene was first derived from cannel coal, classified as terrestrial type of oil shale,[2] it continued to be popularly referred to as "coal oil" even after production shifted to petroleum as a feedstock.[3][4][5] Refined hydrocarbons of the alkane series with 10 to 16 carbon atoms are the same thing whether taken from coal or petroleum.