An experimental and modeling study of burning velocities of possible future synthetic jet fuels

Abstract

Recently, the development of viable alternative aviation fuels has attracted much interest, for several reasons, with reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and ensuring security of supply at affordable prices among them. In the present work, several alternative aviation fuelsexisting and potential-are investigated by focusing on their heat release: Gas-to-Liquid (GtL: representing a Fischer-Tropsch Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene (FT-SPK)), a fully synthetic jet fuel (FSJF: Coal-to-Liquid (CtL)), and blends of GtL with 20% 1-hexanol or 50% naphthenic cut, respectively. Burning velocities are measured at ambient pressures and at elevated preheat temperatures exploiting the cone angle method; equivalence ratios are between about ϕ = 1.0 and ϕ = 1.4. The measured data are used for the validation of a detailed chemical reaction model consisting of 4642 reactions involving 1075 species developed by Dagaut et al. [22-23] following the concept of a surrogate. The comparison between measured burning velocities and predicted laminar flame speeds shows reasonably good agreement with the model for the range of conditions considered in this study. The main features of the reaction model are also discussed, using sensitivity and rate of production analysis. Finally, the experimental data are compared with results obtained earlier for crude-oil kerosene. The findings support the potential of the investigated fuel mixtures to serve as alternative aviation fuels.

A review of the combustion and emissions properties of advanced transportation biofuels and their impact on existing and future engines

“…The flame propagation speeds of HRJ and FT biojet/jet blends are found to be very similar to that of traditional Jet A and hydrocarbon surrogate molecules [307,[315][316][317][318][319][320][321][322][323]. This is consistent with our understanding of high-temperature combustion, as it is now widely understood that the flame propagation speed is not sensitive to the hydrocarbon chain length; for example, the flame speeds for alkane fuel molecules with greater than 5 carbon atoms all collapse together when plotted as a function of the normalized fuel-air equivalence ratio at consistent initial temperatures and pressures [148].…”

Terminology used for renewable liquid and gaseous fuels based on the conversion of electricity: a review

“…The process of converting emissions to fuel is considered as renewable no matter where the emissions are obtained, since this process is a closed carbon loop. Coal-to-liquid (CTL), Gas-to-liquid (GTL) and Biomass-to-liquid (BTL) with the Fischer-Tropsch process Aviation fuel [103][104][105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113][114][115][116][117] Synthetic diesel Coal, natural gas, biomass xTL (Thermochemical conversion)…”

Methods and tools for the characterisation of a generic jet fuel

“…This method was exploited previously for the measurements of several alternative jet fuels, e.g. Coal-to-Liquid, Gas-to-Liquid, Alcohol-to-Jet, and Farnesane, and is described in more details, including the experimental set-up, in earlier publications [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. The experiments were carried out at constant pressure (1 bar) and preheat temperature (473 K); the fuel/air equivalence (φ)-range was varied between 0.6 and 2.0 as shown in Figs.…”