skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Interactions of Jet Fuels with Nitrile O-Rings: Petroleum-Derived versus Synthetic Fuels

Journal Article · · Energy and Fuels
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/ef8008037· OSTI ID:1011240

A transition from petroleum-derived jet fuels to blends with Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) fuels, and ultimately fully synthetic hydro-isomerized F-T fuels has raised concern about the fate of plasticizers in nitrile-butadiene rubber a-rings that are contacted by the fuels as this transition occurs. The partitioning of plasticizers and fuel molecules between nitrile a-rings and petroleum-derived, synthetic, and additized-synthetic jet fuels has been measured. Thermal desorption of o-rings soaked in the various jet fuels followed by gas chromatographic analysis with a mass spectrometric detector showed many of the plasticizer and stabilizer compounds were removed from the o-rings regardless of the contact fuel. Fuel molecules were observed to migrate into the o-rings for the petroleum-derived fuel as did both the fuel and additive for a synthetic F-T jet fuel additized with benzyl alcohol, but less for the unadditized synthetic fuel. The specific compounds or classes of compounds involved in the partitioning were identified and a semiquantitative comparison of relative partitioning of the compounds of interest was made. The results provide another step forward in improving the confidence level of using additized, fully synthetic jet fuel in the place of petroleum-derived fuel.

Research Organization:
National Energy Technology Laboratory, Pittsburgh, PA (United States); RDS-Parsons, South Park, PA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE)
OSTI ID:
1011240
Report Number(s):
NETL-TPR-2269; TRN: US201109%%252
Journal Information:
Energy and Fuels, Vol. 23, Issue 2; ISSN 0887--0624
Publisher:
American Chemical Society
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English