AAAR 33rd Annual Conference
October 20 - October 24, 2014
Rosen Shingle Creek
Orlando, Florida, USA
Abstract View
Influence of Jet Fuel Composition on Aircraft Engine Emissions: A Synthesis of Aerosol Emissions Data from the NASA APEX, AAFEX, and ACCESS Missions
RICHARD MOORE, Michael Shook, Andreas Beyersdorf, Chelsea Corr, Scott Herndon, Berk Knighton, Richard Miake-Lye, Kenneth Thornhill, Edward Winstead, Zhenhong Yu, Luke Ziemba, Bruce Anderson, NASA
Abstract Number: 625 Working Group: Combustion
Abstract We statistically analyze the impact of jet fuel properties on aerosols emitted by the NASA McDonnell Douglas DC-8 CFM56-2-C1 engines burning fifteen different aviation fuels. Data were collected for this single engine type during four different, comprehensive ground tests conducted over the past decade, which allow us to clearly link changes in aerosol emissions to fuel compositional changes. It is found that the volatile aerosol fraction dominates the number and volume emissions indices (EIs) over all engine powers, which are driven by changes in fuel aromatic and sulfur content. Meanwhile, the naphthalenic content of the fuel determines the magnitude of the non-volatile number and volume EI as well as the black carbon mass EI. Linear regression coefficients are reported for each aerosol EI in terms of these properties, engine fuel flow rate, and ambient temperature, and show that reducing both fuel sulfur content and napththalenes to near-zero levels would result in roughly a ten-fold decrease in aerosol number emitted per kg of fuel burn. This work informs future efforts to model aircraft emissions changes as the aviation fleet gradually begins to transition toward low-aromatic, low-sulfur alternative jet fuels from bio-based or Fischer-Tropsch production pathways.