Naphtha is a flammable liquid made from distilling petroleum. It looks like gasoline. Naphtha is used to dilute heavy oil to help move it through pipelines, to make high-octane gas, to make lighter fluid, and even to clean metal. It is a liquid petroleum product that boils from about 30�°C (86�°F) to approximately 200�°C (392�°F), although there are different grades of naphtha within this extensive boiling range that have different boiling ranges. The term petroleum solvent is often used synonymously with naphtha. On a chemical basis, naphtha is difficult to define precisely because it can contain varying amounts of its constituents (paraffins, naphthenes, aromatics, and olefins) in different proportions, in addition to the potential isomers of the paraffins that exist in the naphtha boiling range. Naphtha is also represented as having a boiling range and carbon number similar to those of gasoline a precursor to gasoline.
