Link: http://www.csgnetwork.com/jetfuel.html

Link: http://yarchive.net/env/jet_fuel.html

There are really only two types of Jet fuel used worldwide, "narrow cut " Jet-A1 which is used for almost all civilian aircraft, and Jet-B, the "wide-cut" (includes some of the gasoline fraction as well as the kerosine fraction) fuel used by the military.
Most engines are designed to handle both, and the varying specification names are mainly historical, however ( AFAIK ), all civilain passenger aircraft use Jet-A1 worldwide. During the last two decades the only divergence has been in the changes of freezing point, as the original -50C maximum specification was really only required for a few high altitude long-distance routes ( eg over Himalayas ), and that a relaxation to -47C would be acceptable, with the ocassional need to modify flight plans to avoid cold air. That reduction was
estimated to increase the global availablity of Jet-A1 by almost 10%, thus keeping the prices down. There is now also provision in the Jet-A1 specification for carriers and suppliers to negotiate the freezing point.
Jet A is similar to Jet A-1 except that the maximum freezing point is -40C, and so it is not commonly used internationally.
There are a large number of specification that are variants of Jet-A1, with anti-icing additives, static dissipators, and ( more recently ) differing freezing points for some regional products, but they are all essentially Jet-A1 and are compatible with each other.
The military also have special versions of kerosene. The widecut specification was originally designed to maximise yield of jet from crude oil ( up to 40% ) which could be in short supply during wars, and also to have excellent low temperature properties ( -60C maximum freezing point ) for global operational use. There are other military kerosenes, eg for safety reasons, aircraft carriers use a high flash point fuel, minimum FP=60C, versus 38C for Jet-A1. There is no flash point limit for Jet-B, but it will be much lower.

Essentially today there are only two common types, Jet-A1 and Jet-B, each of which is covered by multiple specifications.

Jet-A1 = AVTUR = NATO F-35, and ( with slightly differing static dissipating additive related specifications ), = AVTUR/FSII, Nato F-34, US JP-8. Jet A is identical to Jet A1, except for freezing point specification.

Jet-B = AVTAG/FSII = Nato F-40 = US JP-4

The less common high flash aircraft carrier fuel is AVCAT/FSII=Nato F-44=US JP-5.

Link: http://www.generalaviationnews.com/editorial/articledetail.lasso?-token.key=11435&-token.src=index&-nothing

This article discusses why it may be a bad idea to use #2 diesel fuel in an aviation engine that normally uses Jet A...the article explains some of the differences between the two fuel types.

Gasoline is made up of the petroleum fraction that boils below 200 degrees centigrade (390 F). Aviation gasoline has a smaller boiling range (38-170 C, 100-340 F), leaving out the lowest boiling components that are in auto gas, largely because of extreme volatilities they would have at the altitudes involved in flying.
The two tests used to determine "research" and "motor" octane differ in the load on the test engine (more load for the motor test). Both octane and cetane tests are described by, and conducted according to specifications of, the ASTM (American Society for Testing Materials). The standard test compound is "iso-octane" as oil men call it. Chemically it is not iso-octane which would be 2-methylheptane, but rather 2,2,4-trimethylpentane, a highly branched eight-carbon hydrocarbon.
Gasoline engines knock less on branched hydrocarbons, although the straight distillate of raw petroleum tends to contain mostly straight-chain hydrocarbons in this low-molecular-weight range. Cracking and catalytic reforming processes are used to increase the percentage of branched hydrocarbons to improve octane ratings.
Aviation gasoline usually has no olefins (alkenes) because they tend to form gums and have poor antiknock characteristics. Aromatics, such as benzene and toluene, have good octane ratings under load (rich conditions) but act more like olefins under lean cruising. Toluene has research/motor octane ratings of 120.1/103.5; benzene has 114.8 motor octane, compared to "isooctane" which is set arbitrarily at 100 on both scales.
In 1922, tetraethyl lead was found to improve the anti-knock characteristics of gasoline. This became more important in the 1930s because the increased demand for gas led to use of cracking processes that produced more gasoline from crude oil, but of lower octane ratings. Standards for octane ratings over 100 are made from "isooctane" with tetraethyl lead added (1% = 108.6; 2% = 112.8; 3% = 115.5, etc.).
Crude oil has more of the branched, cyclic, and aromatic hydrocarbons in the higher molecular weight range where Diesel fuels are obtained. Diesel fuel, and fuel oil, have a boiling range of about 175-345 C (350-650 F). The standard for Diesel fuel ratings is "cetane" or n-hexadecane. This is a straight-chain, 16 carbon hydrocarbon with a short-delay period during ignition, and its rating is set at 100. Heptamethylnonane is a highly branched 16 carbon hydrocarbon with a long-delay ignition, and cetane rating set at 15. Diesel fuels largely contain molecules having 10-20 carbons, whereas gasoline components have mostly 12 or fewer carbons. Diesel fuel power in terms of heat content is increased by saturated hydrocarbons, but these are prone to form waxes at low temperatures. Ignition performance is improved by straight-chain hydrocarbons, such as cetane.

As mentioned above, crude oil is just the "opposite" of what we want--it has a lot of straight chain small molecules where we want branching, and it has a lot of branched, cyclic, and aromatic (highly unsaturated) heavy molecules, where we would prefer straight-chain saturated molecules. One legitimate reason for Diesel fuel price increases is the cost of removing sulfur to meet EPA requirements.
The bottom line is that the best Diesel fuel would have a lot of "waxes" or saturated, straight-chain molecules, up to the limit of the cloud point and pour point allowed by ambient conditions. The other "stuff" helps with viscosity, pouring, lubricity, etc. but is largely there because that is what is available. It should be apparent that a poor Diesel fuel would be made up of small molecules with a lot of branching and unsaturation--that is, a pretty good gasoline!

To use our normal frame of reference, we know that gasoline ignites very easily, and is very volatile. Diesel fuel is much less volatile--it stays on you when you spill it during fueling the truck, even after you try to wipe it off. Diesel fuel also ignites much less easily. So, if you put some of the above "pretty good gasoline" in your Diesel, it would ignite so explosively that the heads would pop off the engine, etc. That would be "powerful" but in the explosive sense. It would have less heat content (the useful kind of power), because of the smaller, unsaturated (aromatic, etc.) molecules, so it would decrease fuel mileage, if the engine could stay together. Now you see why #1 Diesel and winterized Diesel fuel decrease your fuel mileage. To improve the cloud and pour points, lower the viscosity, and increase volatility to compensate for low ambient temperatures, smaller molecules, and ones that tend to stay liquid at lower temperatures (branching and aromaticity help here) are used in the fuel. They do the needed job, but have less heat content (often expressed in BTUs or British Thermal Units). Basically, the characteristics that make more power are more carbons and more hydrogens per gallon, and saturated molecules have more hydrogens.

Went down to Dallas Executive today to buzz over to Lufkin. The self-serve price for 100LL at the airport has risen to $4.25 (!). I purchased the minimum fuel to get to Lufkin, hoping that fuel would be cheaper there.
Well, I was sort-of-right, but it didn't make a lot of difference...when I arrived at Lufkin, the price for 100LL there was ....$4.19. The FBO manager told me that it had risen 30 cents a gallon with the most recent delivery. Who wants to own a piston-engined twin right now?
The flight was a little bumpy until I flew under higher cloud cover. I started out at 5500 but descended to 3500 because of poor visibility - that that altitude the visibility was no more than 2 miles. Like looking into a smoke-filled room. I ran with the wing leveller turned on, since with that level of visibility keeping the canard (the Long-EZ attitude indicator) level with the horizon suddenly becomes a more taxing task.
While I was getting fuel at Lufkin, a pilot taxiied past in a light sport category aircraft that was clearly running an automotive power plant. For a brief period of time, I suffered an attack of powerplant envy...
BTW, Runway 15/33 at Lufkin is currently closed for repairs and upgrades.

Next up is Rough River, after which time the plane will be undergoing a Fall retrofit for a number of defail changes that I have been meaning to work on for some time. More on those changes in future articles. (And no, I'm not changing powerplants ....yet).