In 1999, as the only inland petroleum refinery in South Africa was reaching capacity, Sasol gained approval of a semi-synthetic jet fuel (SSJF) for civil aviation to augment production and meet the growing demand for jet fuel at the airport in Johannesburg. Prior to this, all jet fuel had to be refined from petroleum sources. SSJF consists of up to 50% of an iso-paraffinic kerosene produced from coal using Fischer-Tropsch processes. The production of SSJF remains vulnerable to the production capacity of conventional jet fuel, however. To ensure supply, Sasol has proposed producing a fully synthetic jet fuel (FSJF) using synthetic kerosene streams that contain aromatics and satisfy all the property requirements of international specifications for jet fuel. Being fully synthetic, it was necessary to demonstrate that the fuel is "fit-for-purpose" as jet fuel, i.e., behaves like conventional jet fuel in all aspects of storage and handling as well as air worthiness and flight safety.
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