Impacts of Biodiesel on Pollutant Emissions of a JP-8–Fueled Turbine Engine

Abstract

The impacts of biodiesel on gaseous and particulate matter (PM) emissions of a JP-8 -fueled T63 engine were investigated. Jet fuel was blended with the soybean oilderived methyl ester biofuel at various concentrations and combusted in the turbine engine. The engine was operated at three power settings, namely ground idle, cruise, and takeoff power, to study the impact of the biodiesel at significantly different pressure and temperature conditions. Particulate emissions were characterized by measuring the particle number density (PND; particulate concentration), the particle size distribution, and the total particulate mass. PM samples were collected for offline analysis to obtain information about the effect of the biodiesel on the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) content. In addition, temperature-programmed oxidation was performed on the collected soot samples to obtain information about the carbonaceous content (elemental or organic). Major and minor gaseous emissions were quantified using a total hydrocarbon analyzer, an oxygen analyzer, and a Fourier Transform IR analyzer. Test results showed the potential of biodiesel to reduce soot emissions in the jet-fueled turbine engine without negatively impacting the engine performance. These reductions, however, were observed only at the higher power settings with relatively high concentrations of biodiesel. Specifically, reductions of ϳ15% in the PND were observed at cruise and takeoff conditions with 20% biodiesel in the jet fuel. At the idle condition, slight increases in PND were observed; however, evidence shows this increase to be the result of condensed uncombusted biodiesel. Most of the gaseous emissions were unaffected under all of the conditions. The biodiesel was observed to have minimal effect on the formation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons during this study. In addition to the combustion results, discussion of the physical and chemical characteristics of the blended fuels obtained using standard American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) fuel specifications methods are presented.

Development of methodologies for identification and quantification of hazardous air pollutants from turbine engine emissions

“…This engine has been used to investigate the effect of fuel chemical and physical properties, additives, and engine power setting on gaseous and PM emissions; details on the engine are provided elsewhere (Corporan et al, 2005(Corporan et al, , 2009Wilson et al, 2013). During this effort, the engine was operated at several power Notes: *Not a regulated HAP.…”

“…Previous efforts have been performed to sample and quantify HAPs emissions from aircraft engines (Spicer et al, 2009;Spicer et al, 1994;Knighton et al, 2009;Corporan et al, 2005;Kinsey, 2009). The most complete of these methods for measuring a wide range of hydrocarbon species, including low-molecular-weight hydrocarbons (C 1 -C 5 ), aromatics, and unburned fuel constituents, was completed by Spicer (Spicer et al, 2009).…”

Comparison of Jet Fuel produced by Nonconventional Sources: Manufacturing, Emission and Performance

“…Hence, the major driver of NO x in gas turbines is the flame temperature which is mainly a concern at full load conditions. Glaude et al 104 in their investigations found a proportional increase in the adiabatic flame temperature with increase in the number carbon atoms in a molecule and the opposite for increase in the H/C ratio. These observations explain the trend observed in the NO x emissions from different fuels in fig 23. Although the GtL/CtL contain a higher H/C ratio and very low aromatic content they produce a higher adiabatic flame temperature compared to FAME with same carbon atoms in the molecule.…”

“…al. 104 on different blends of biodiesel with JP-8 in a T63 combustor, there was a power output penalty and fuel flow rate had to be increased by 4% to maintain constant output at 20% biodiesel blend due to the lower heat of combustion. Fig 25 shows the relative emissions of particulate matter for different blends of biodiesel at idle, cruise and take-off conditions.…”

Influence of Waste Cooking Oil Biodiesel on the Particulate Emissions and Particle Volatility of a DI Diesel Engine

“…The BSPM of biodiesel is 229.8 mg/kWh, on average of the five engine loads, which is 26.5% and 43.3% lower than BSPM of ULSD and LSD, respectively. The effectiveness of biodiesel on reducing particulate emission has been reported in the literature (Corporan et al, 2005;Tsolakis, 2006;Lapuerta et al, 2008). In general, there are three reasons leading to the lower particulate emission with biodiesel.…”