High-performance jet fuel optimization and uncertainty analysis

Abstract High-performance jet fuel represents a subset of sustainable aviation fuel that improves the value and performance of the fuel while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and remaining within ‘drop-in’ operability and safety limits. Here, performance gains via increased specific energy [MJ/kg] and energy density [MJ/L] achievable with high-performance jet fuel have been bound by optimizing blends of molecules considering 10 operability and safety properties. Aleatoric and epistemic uncertainties associated with the optimization have been quantified using Latin hypercube sampling, with the associated variance in performance, composition, and operability properties reported. Two optimization scenarios were considered-one with and one without the 8% minimum aromatic requirement- to determine the effect on fuel performance and composition while exploring the possibility of replacing aromatics with cycloalkanes in jet fuel. The results of this study are average specific energy/energy density increases of 1.61/2.36% and 1.84/2.46% relative to Jet A with and without the aromatic constraint respectively, indicating that aromatics are not desirable for fuel performance. Uncertainty for performance properties was low with 1σ and 2σ values at ±0.2% and ±0.4% of the average Pareto front values for both scenarios, which suggests that this study is a good indicator of the performance benefits that can be conferred via high-performance jet fuel. Compositions were biased heavily toward cycloalkanes at 70% and 81% respectively, with low-temperature viscosity and density serving as the limiting operability constraints. This study concludes that cycloalkanes can replace aromatics in jet fuel considering operability limits while increasing fuel performance and reducing soot emissions.