The most recent environmental legislations in developed and industrialized nations focus on significantly reducing fossil fuel combustion emissions and greenhouse gas emissions, by encouraging the utilization of ultra-low sulfur and aromatics content fuels. The search for ultra-clean fuels coupled with the world's concerns about petroleum depletion and the increasing price of oil has intensified the search for alternatives to conventionally derived transportation fuels, including aviation fuels. One alternative is Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene (SPK) aviation fuels produced from the gas-to-liquid (GTL) process. Previous studies were carried out at Texas A&M University at Qatar to formulate SPK aviation fuels based on physical properties using normal-, iso- and cyclo- paraffins as base components which showed that certain physical properties such as density and lubricity may need to be improved as well as the elastomer compatibility behavior. All the data generated earlier were utilized to develop the statistical analysis model of Artificial Neural Network, which helped in the identification of an optimum region of compositions whereby all the physical properties comply with ASTM D1655.Experimental investigations were carried out based on two solvents: a mono-Aromatic solvent (Toluene) and a cyclo-paraffin (Decalin) to study their corresponding individual influence on the characteristics of SPK. The design of our experimental approach to identify the required aromatic percentage for the SPK has utilized the outcome of our previous studies looking at the correlations between various blends hydrocarbon structure and their properties. Two different plans were proposed for the aforementioned solvents, in which Toluene and Decalin were added individually to SPK with gradual increments ranging between (1 � 25) % volume and (30 � 70) % volume, respectively, in order to comply with the minimum local/international environmental regulations. The blends were tested following ASTM methods for: density, flash point, freezing point, heat content and elastomer swelling. Then, Ternary Diagrams were utilized to show how these physical properties varied in relation to hydrocarbon compositions. Understanding the effects of mono-Aromatic and cyclo-paraffin additions are essential to formulate and design next generations of aviation fuels.

Properties driven design of synthetic jet fuels derived from natural gas via gas-to-liquid technology

244th National Meeting (2012)

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