STABILITY STUDIES OF A JET FUEL CONTAINING NO ORGANO- SULFUR COMPOUNDS

ABSTRACT Instability, incompatibility, phase separation, or sludge-sediment formation are all terms that denote fuel degradation. Middle distillate fuels continue to have significant instability problems. Specific chemical reaction pathways that initiate the reactions that in turn lead to fuel instability and incompatibility are difficult to isolate. Results from our laboratory indicated that the sedimentation process can be modeled by considering various organo-sulfur oxidation products. These reactions are initiated by a hydroperoxide induced oxidation process. The present research is directed toward a stability study of a jet fuel that has been processed to contain zero weight percent sulfur.