Composition-Explicit Distillation Curves of Alternative Turbine Fuels

Abstract

In recent years, environmental considerations, the potential for supply disruptions, and rising fuel prices have led to the development of turbine fuels produced from non-petroleum feedstocks. To determine the suitability of an alternative turbine fuel, it is important to characterize the fuel properties and assess the degree of departure of the alternative fuel characteristics from those of petroleum-derived fuels. One very important property to use for this purpose is the volatility, as expressed by the distillation curve. In this paper, we present advanced distillation curve measurements of three prototype alternative turbine fuels and compare the distillation curve, composition, and combustion enthalpy to those of the petroleum-derived turbine fuels JP-8 and JP-10. We studied a hydrotreated fuel derived from chicken fat, a fuel composed of hydrogenated pinene dimers derived from turpentine, and a gas–liquid fuel produced from natural gas via the Fischer–Tropsch process. We found that the distillation curves of the chicken-fat-derived fuel and the gas–liquid turbine fuel were similar to those of JP-8, deviating the most at high distillate volume fractions. The chicken-fat-derived fuel deviated by at most 17 °C from the distillation curve of JP-8, and the gas–liquid turbine fuel deviated by at most 36 °C. The hydrotreated turpentine dimer fuel was much less volatile than JP-10, a fuel with which the turpentine dimer fuel shares some structural similarities. The shape of the distillation curves of these two fuels was similar, however. The major components of all fuels were determined, and these were used to calculate the enthalpy of combustion for several distillate volume fractions of the alternative turbine fuels. The gas–liquid turbine fuel was most similar to petroleum-derived fuel in its energy content, and the turpentine dimer fuel had a high volumetric enthalpy of combustion value similar to that of JP-10.