Evaluating Effects of Fuel Properties on Smoke Emissions

Abstract

Volatile oil price and environmental impact of conventional jet fuel are key motivators towards the proposing of alternative jet fuels. This article introduces and establishes a relationship between jet fuel properties/composition and smoke emission. It is an important and comprehensive task as it underlines the base references and scientific reasoning on fuel compositions / properties; very few, if any, studies have investigated the effects of each of the properties/ compositions on smoke emissions. Two sets of fuels were tested on small re-commissioned Honeywell GTCP85 APU gas turbine Engine. The first set was consisted of 8 novel fuels, while the second was a blend of varied percentages of Jet A-1 and other alternative fuel. This is to provide a wide range of properties and compositions. The results were compared to those of Jet A-1on the same platform (Honeywell GTCP85 APU). It was observed that not all fuel compositions/properties have the same effects on the smoke number. Some of them such as: Specific Energy, Kinematic, viscosity, Biphenyls, monocycloparaffin, AlkylBenzene, Fluorenes, Distillation temp (90%), Carbon (%mass), Naphthalene, Composite Density, Benzocycloparaffin, Density at 15C°, Aromatics (%Vol) and Net heat of Combustion have a clear direct effect on the smoke number, while others such as iso-paraffin and flashpoint have a reduced impact on smoke number. This data shall be used to predict the effect of certain composition/ property on the smoke emission, thus it could be avoided or to be taking into considerations when producing or using new alternative fuels.