Catalytic autothermal reforming of Jet fuel

Aircraft manufacturers have to reduce the emissions and the specific fuel consumption of their systems. Fuel cell use in a ‘more electric aircraft’ can be one possibility. To keep the technology simple only one fuel (Jet A, Jet A-1) shall be used on board the aircraft. Therefore, the catalytic reforming of Jet A-1 fuel was examined in this paper, although the use of fossil fuels causes the production of greenhouse effect promoting gases like carbon dioxide CO2. The autothermal reforming of desulphurised kerosene is examined with a 15 kW (based on the lower heating value of Jet fuel) test rig. The experiments are performed at steam to carbon ratios of S/C = 1.5–2.5 and air to fuel ratios of λ = 0.24–0.32, respectively. The composition of the product gas, the volumetric flow rate of the product gas at standard conditions and the temperatures in the catalyst are determined as a function of the operating variables. The gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) is varied between 50,000 and 300,000 h−1. The influence of sulphur containing feed streams (real Jet fuel) on reforming behaviour is investigated as well as the influence of the hydrogen concentration on the hydrodesulphurisation process. Another simple way of desulphurisation is the adsorption of liquid sulphur containing hydrocarbons, the influence of the variation of the liquid hourly space velocity (LHSV) is measured at a temperature of 150 °C.