Emissions of Volatile Particulate Components from Turboshaft Engines Operated with JP-8 and Fischer-Tropsch Fuels

Abstract

Particulate emissions from two types of helicopter turboshaft engines operated with military JP-8 and paraffinic Fischer-Tropsch (FT) fuels were characterized as an objective of the field campaign held at the Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, GA in June 2007. In general helicopter engines exhaust particles size distributions observed at the engine nozzle and 4.14 m downstream locations showing the geometric mean diameters smaller than 50 nm for all engine power settings investigated in this study. For both locations, the geometric mean diameter increased as the engine power setting increased; this trend also holds true for the emitted particle number concentration. The growth of particle geometric mean diameter was found significant, 7 nm, only in the case of the idle power setting. Sulfur-to-sulfate conversion was found to be independent of the engine power setting. Emissions of both sulfur and sulfate increased as the engine power increased. When JP-8 fuel was used, particles smaller than 7 nm were found to increase in samples taken at the downstream location. The number concentration in this tail increased as the power setting increased. No such observation was found when FT fuel was used implying that the increased formation of nuclei particles in the plume downstream was likely to be caused by the sulfur and aromatic compounds in the JP-8 fuel. Total particulate carbon emissions increased as the engine power setting increased. Use of FT fuel reduced the elemental carbon emissions as it compared to the JP-8 fuel, and organic carbon emission at idle power but not at the higher powers. The reduction of elemental carbon by the FT fuel was attributed to the absence of aromatics (soot precursors) in the fuel. The OC/EC ratio was found to be in the range of 3-50 depending on the engine power setting. The aircraft emitted OC/EC was found to decrease as the engine power increased.