Water solubility characteristics of current aviation jet fuels

Water solubility-temperature curves were created experimentally for five kerosine fuels and one wide-cut fuel. The Karl Fischer Coulometer method was used to determine the saturated water content of each fuel over a range of temperatures between −5 °C and 25 °C. The affinity for water of each fuel with respect to the other fuels was measured and ranked. The experimental solubility curves are comparable to the water solubility curves of the Jet A-1 and JP-4 fuels reported in the CRC Handbook of Aviation Fuel Properties. There are subtle differences between the experimental solubility curves and the CRC curves. This may be attributed to batch-to-batch variation or recent changes in fuel chemistry owing to the need to exploit less favourable crude oil reserves. A generic equation has been proposed to estimate the water solubility when aromatics content and flash point are known.