Characterization of jet fuels obtained from sources other than crude oil is a modern area of research that is developing continuously to replace available petroleum-based fuels with 'drop-in'alternative fuels. Therefore, reliable composition-property relationships have to be developed to correlate the hydrocarbon compositions of formulated synthetic fuels with their properties.  Intensive studies have been initiated at Texas A&M Qatar in collaboration with industry and academia to study synthetic jet fuels derived from natural gas. These studies are being implemented at its Fuel Characterization Lab whereby number of very advanced testing and analytical equipment has been used to conduct these studies. The current study is focused on conducting experimental investigations using in-house formulated synthetic jet fuels blends derived from natural gas via Gas-to-Liquid technology and Fischer-Tropsch chemistry. Throughout this research work, these fuels will be referred to as Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene (SPK). The current experimental investigations have been focusing on studying physical and chemical characteristics of blends between the SPKs and the conventional kerosene (Jet A-1) at different ratios. This study has two purposes: the first one is to understand the role of hydrocarbon structure of jet fuels on their physical and chemical properties (using ASTM D1655 and D7566 as reference for fuels properties). The second purpose is to look at jet fuels properties as function of SPKs to Jet A-1 ratios. The outcome of this study showed that all the tested blends met the limits for required properties for jet fuels certification except for the density. To boost the density Jet A-1 has to be at least 75vol% of the blend. The ASTM D7566 states that the maximum possible SPK or synthetic sources in final blend should not exceed 50 vol%, which is in agreement with the findings of our study. Keywords: Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene (SPK), GTL, Jet A-1.

Potentials for GTL derived synthetic jet fuels in the aviation industry

246th National Meeting (2013)

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