JP-900: Strategies and Mechanisms for Oxygen Scavenging

摘要

In order to achieve optimal performance capabilities for the next generation of jet engines significant improvement in jet fuel oxidative and thermal stability is necessary. This objective has led the U.S. Air Force to initiate a JP-900 effort with the goal of producing a fuel thermally stable to 480 deg C (900deg F) (1). This objective is very challenging since it is a giant step beyond the current fuel pre-combustion temperature limit of JP-8+100 of 263 deg C (425 deg F) (2). A JP-900 fuel will have to achieve both oxidative and pyrolytic stability, properties which seem to be inversely related (3,4). We define oxidative instability as deposit formation on engine surfaces shortly after the fuel reacts with its dissolved oxygen usually between 180-220 deg C. Pyrolytic instability, on the other hand, is an anaerobic deposit formation on engine surfaces that occurs at temperature above 450 deg C.