Composition-Explicit Distillation Curves of Alternative Turbine Fuels

Published

December 3, 2013

Author(s)

Raina V. Gough, Thomas J. Bruno

Abstract

In recent years, environmental considerations, the potential for supply disruptions, and rising fuel prices have led to the development of turbine fuels produced from non-petroleum feedstocks. To determine the suitability of an alternative turbine fuel, it is important to characterize the fuel properties and assess the degree of departure of the alternative fuels from the petroleum-derived fuels. One of the most important properties to use for this purpose is the volatility, as expressed by the distillation curve. In this paper, we present advanced distillation curve measurements of three prototype alternative turbine fuels and compare the distillation curve, composition, and combustion enthalpy to those of the petroleum-derived turbine fuels JP-8 and JP-10. We studied a hydrotreated fuel derived from chicken fat, a hydrotreated fuel derived from pinene dimers, and a gas-to-liquid fuel produced from natural gas via the Fischer–Tropsch process. We found that the distillation curves of the chicken fat-derived fuel and the gas-to-liquid turbine fuel were similar to those of JP-8, deviating the most at high distillate volume fractions. The chicken fat-derived fuel deviated at most 17 °C at most from the distillation curve of JP-8 and the gas-to-liquid turbine fuel deviated at most 36 °C. The hydrotreated pinene dimer fuel was much less volatile than its petroleum-derived equivalent, JP-10, although the shape of the distillation curve was similar and the fuels both had high volumetric enthalpy of combustion values. The major components of all fuels were determined, and this was used to calculate the enthalpy of combustion for several distillate volume fractions of the alternative turbine fuels. The gas-to-liquid turbine fuel was most similar to petroleum-derived fuel in its energy content.

Citation

Energy and Fuels

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1021/ef3016848

Keywords

distillation curve, aviation kerosene, turbine fuel, chemical analysis, chicken fat feedstock, turpentine

Citation

Gough, R. and Bruno, T. (2013), Composition-Explicit Distillation Curves of Alternative Turbine Fuels, Energy and Fuels, [online], https://doi.org/10.1021/ef3016848 (Accessed April 19, 2024)