Properties of narrow cuts of hydrocracked kerosene for jet fuel

Abstract

Hydrocracked kerosene represents an additional source of jet fuel in oil refineries. The objective of this study was to re-distill hydrocracked kerosene (distillation range of 155-211 °C) into narrow cuts (distillation range of 10 °C) and to determine the dependence of the critical parameters of jet fuel, i.e., density, aromatics, smoke, and freezing point on the mean boiling point (tmean) of these cuts, utilizing modern and well established analytical methods. Re-distillation yielded seven narrow cuts composed of hydrocarbons with maximally three different carbon numbers. The analyzed properties deteriorated significantly with increasing tmean of cuts. Already the cuts with tmean of 190 °C + did not meet the jet fuel specification for aromatics and the 210 °C + cut did not meet any of the studied properties. Aromatics were crucial in controlling the distillation range and this provided an explanation for why hydrocracked jet fuel can be produced only as a narrow fraction. Since a low freezing point characterized all narrow cuts, this property represents a crucial synergy of blending of the hydrocracked kerosene with a straight-run kerosene or SAF. Overall, we demonstrated that narrow-cut research provides new insights into the characteristics of the hydrocracked kerosene.