Gasoline engines and diesel engines both work by internal combustion, but in slightly different ways. In a gasoline engine, fuel and air is injected into small metal cylinders. A piston compresses (squeezes) the mixture, making it explosive, and a small electric spark from a sparking plug sets fire to it. That makes the mixture explode, generating

Because diesel has a higher compression resistance — because it is denser than light distillate fuels — engineers can design and develop diesel engines with higher compression ratios than gasoline engines. The higher the compression ratio of an engine, the greater the thermal efficiency.

The Department of Energy does not collect data on the source of gasoline sold at gas stations. However, they do provide a Primer on Gasoline Sources and Markets that explains why this is difficult to determine.