1 research outputs found
Role of Hydrocarbon Building Blocks on Gas-to-Liquid Derived Synthetic Jet Fuel Characteristics
The role of typical hydrocarbon building
blocks of gas-to-liquid (GTL) derived jet fuels on their physical
and chemical properties have been investigated. The ultimate goal
of our studies is to develop accurate composition–property
relationships for synthetic fuels to be used in optimizing synthetic
fuel properties as per the aviation industry standards. The composition–property
analysis has been carried out through formulating in-house fuel blends
using neat GTL fuel building blocks (<i>normal-</i>, <i>iso-</i>, and <i>cyclo-</i>paraffins). Typical properties
of interest in this study are density, freezing point, flash point,
and heat content, all of which are essential for jet fuel certification.
The systematic approach developed in this study was to identify an
optimized region, in which all major properties for aviation standards
are met. Different techniques were used, including the development
of ternary mapping of these aforementioned building blocks alongside
their physical properties. This has been achieved through formulating
35 blends giving a broad spread across the ternary map and generating
a database from the experimental results. The optimized region and
the composition–property relationships were obtained through
building a statistical model of artificial neutral networks (ANNs)
using the data generated as its basis. The generated data show that
some properties, such as freezing point, exhibit nonlinear results
whereas others are strongly linear, such as density and heat content.
Aromatics in jet fuels are impactful (and required) even though their
environmental harms are evident, and as such, their role on certain
properties was preliminarily investigated. Furthermore it has been
observed that different crystal shapes exist within some areas in
the freezing point ternary map. Finally, the use of mathematical models
as predictive tools was investigated, and in most instances the model
developed was accurate. The outcome of the current study has been
used to develop a new visualization technique for the relationship
between GTL synthetic paraffinic kerosene’s and their building
blocks (i.e., paraffinic hydrocarbons)