What is Aeroplane fuel made of?

Question

Is there individual fuels for example diesel and unleaded are individual car fuels are there different Aeroplane Fuels?

Answer 1

Turbine powered aircraft (including jets, turboprops, and many helicopters) use jet fuel. It is a heavy fuel like kerosene. Jet A is the heavy grade and Jet A1 is heavy grade with an antiice additive and is the most common. Jet B is a wide cut grade (kerosene mixed with gasoline) and is used mostly in helicopters, although turbne engines can burn virtually anything, including gasoline.

Reciprocating aircraft engines use Avgas (a type of gasoline). It used to be available in a variety of types: 80/87 (Red dyed), 100 (Green Dyed) and 130 (Purple). These all had high lead additives. 100LL (Blue) is a low lead Avgas that is the most popular for aircraft piston engines. Mogas (auto gas) can also be used on homebuilt and ultralight aircraft and can be used in certified aircraft with approval and correct modifications to the engine and fuel system.

Diesel engines are making a comeback. The Diamond DA-42 is a light twin engines aircraft that can be ordered with diesel engines, but will run mostly on Jet A1 or Jet B since it is more readily available at airports.

Methanol is only used mixed with water for boosting power of some turbine engines. It is NEVER used in aircraft reciprocating engines.

Answer 2

Basically its kerosene with some extra additives to make it volatile because kerosene ordinarily isn't volatile despite being well suited for gas turbines (jet engines).

I've heard of diesel powering a few jet engines...I don't know how they got that to work, but alternative fuels are starting to get a bite of the jet market.

Answer 3

There are.  To simplify matters, jet aircraft and turboprops use a form of kerosene (there many variations but I won't bore you with them) whereas piston-engined aircraft (usually the smaller ones) use gasoline/petrol just like a car engine, though it's specially  modified for aviation purposes.

There are indeed some diesel piston aero-engines on the market, but while they work like any diesel they actually burn jet/turboprop kerosene, not your common-or-garden  diesel fuel.

Hope that helps.

Answer 4

the same stuff as for cars just higher octane.

Answer 5

Piston engine airplanes run on gasoline.  Turboprops and turbojets run on kerosene.  Both types have lots of additives for high altitude flight.

An internet search on "aviation fuel" will get you all the information you need.

Good luck!

Answer 6

Jet fuel is very similar to kerosene or diesel fuel.  But it also has additives so it works well in the very cold conditions when the aircraft is operating at altitude.

When I was deployed during Desert Storm, we used JP5 jet fuel in our diesel powered maintenance trucks.  It worked just fine.  If you didn't know it was jet fuel, you wouldn't know the difference.

Answer 7

yes there are different airplane fuels...

jet fuel is basically just kerosene

Answer 8

Most of these are correct, but avgas is not the same as car gas.  The additives are different, both for altitude and storage.  Car gas, left in the tank for months, like some aircraft would varnish and have a lot of sludge that looks like, well, varnish, in the bottom of the tank -- clogging filters and pumps.

Answer 9

At the molecular level - Hydrogen and carbon atoms.

Answer 10

Before we get into types of fuel you need to know about the engine in aircraft.  This is a bit long but fuel is an important subject.

All engines must meet certain general requirements of efficiency, economy, and reliability.  Besides being economical in fuel consumption, an aircraft engine must be economical (the cost of original procurement and the cost of maintenance) and it must meet exacting requirements of efficiency and low weight per horsepower ratio.  It must be capable of sustained high-power output with no sacrifice in reliability; it must also have the durability to operate for long periods of time between overhauls.  It needs to be as compact as possible, yet have easy accessibility for maintenance.  It is required to be as vibration free as possible and be able to cover a wide range of power output at various speeds and altitudes.

The basic parameter for describing the fuel economy of aircraft engines is usually specific fuel consumption.  Specific fuel consumption for turbojets and ramjets is the fuel flow (lbs./hr.) divided by thrust (lbs.), and for reciprocating engines the fuel flow (lbs./hr.) divided by brake horsepower.  These are called "thrust specific fuel consumption" and "brake specific fuel consumption," respectively.  Equivalent specific fuel consumption is used for the turboprop engine and is the fuel flow in pounds per hour divided by a turboprop's equivalent shaft horsepower.  Comparisons can be made between the various engines on a specific fuel consumption basis.

At low speed, the reciprocating and turbopropeller engines have better economy than the turbojet engines.  However, at high speed, because of losses in propeller efficiency, the reciprocating or turbopropeller engine's efficiency becomes less than that of the turbojet

The ratio of useful work done by an engine to the heat energy of the fuel it uses, expressed in work or heat units, is called the thermal efficiency of the engine.  If two similar engines use equal amounts of fuel, obviously the engine which converts into work the greater part of the energy in the fuel (higher thermal efficiency) will deliver the greater amount of power.  Furthermore, the engine which has the higher thermal efficiency will have less waste heat to dispose of to the valves, cylinders, pistons, and cooling system of the engine.  A high thermal efficiency also means a low specific fuel consumption and, therefore, less fuel for a flight of a given distance at a given power.  Thus, the practical importance of a high thermal efficiency is threefold, and it constitutes one of the most desirable features in the performance of an aircraft engine.

Reciprocating engines are only about 34% thermally efficient; that is, they transform only about 34% of the total heat produced by the burning fuel into mechanical energy. The remainder of the heat is lost through the exhaust gases, the cooling system, and the friction within the engine.

Fuel is a substance that, when combined with oxygen, will burn and produce heat.  Fuels may be classified according to their physical state as solid, gaseous, or liquid.

Gasoline is a complex blend of volatile hydrocarbon compounds that have a wide range of boiling points and vapor pressures. It is blended in such a way that a straight chain of boiling points is obtained. This is necessary to obtain the required starting, acceleration, power, and fuel mixture characteristics for the engine.

Some fuels may contain considerable quantities of aromatic hydrocarbons, which are added to increase the rich mixture performance rating of the fuel. Such fuels, known as aromatic fuels, have a strong solvent and swelling action on some types of hose and other rubber parts of the fuel system. For this reason, aromatic-resistant hose and rubber parts have been developed for use with aromatic fuels.

Antiknock qualities of aviation fuel are designated by grades. The higher the grade, the more compression the fuel can stand wìthout detonating. For fuels that have two numbers, the first number indicates the lean- mixture rating and the second the rich-mixture rating. Thus, grade 100/130 fuel has a lean-mixture rating of 100 and a rich-mixture rating of 130. Two different scales are used to designate fuel grade. For fuels below grade 100, octane numbers are used to designate grade. The octane number system is based on a comparison of any fuel with mixtures of iso-octane and normal heptane. The octane number of a fuel is the percentage of iso-octane in the mixture that duplicates the knock characteristics of the particular fuel being rated. Thus, grade 91 fuel has the same knock characteristics as a blend of 91 percent iso-octane and 9 percent normal heptane.

Gasolines containing TEL must be colored to conform with the law. In addition, gasoline may be colored for purposes of identification. For example, grade 100 low lead aviation gasoline is blue, grade 100 is green and grade 80 is red.

The aircraft gas turbine is designed to operate on a distillate fuel, commonly called jet fuel. Jet fuels are also composed of hydrocarbons with a little more carbon and usually a higher sulphur content than gasoline. Inhibitors may be added to reduce corrosion and oxidation. Anti-icing additives are also being blended to prevent fuel icing.

Two types of jet fuel in common use today are: (1) Kerosene grade turbine fuel, now named Jet A; and (2) a blend of gasoline and kerosene fractions, designated Jet B. There is a third type, called Jet A-1, which is made for operation at extremely low temperatures.

There is very little physical difference between Jet A (JP-5) fuel and commercial kerosene. Jet A was developed as a heavy kerosene having a higher flash point and lower freezing point than most kerosenes. It has a very low vapor pressure, so there is little loss of fuel from evaporation or boil-off at higher altitudes. It contains more heat energy per gallon than does Jet B (JP-4).

Jet B is similar to Jet A. It is a blend of gasoline and kerosene fractions. Most commercial turbine engines will operate on either Jet A or Jet B fuel. However, the difference in the specific gravity of the fuels may require fuel control adjustments. Therefore, the fuels cannot always be considered interchangeable.

Both Jet A and Jet B fuels are blends of heavy distillates and tend to absorb water. The specific gravity of jet fuels, especially kerosene, is closer to water than is aviation gasoline; thus, any water introduced into the fuel, either through refueling or condensation, will take an appreciable time to settle out. At high altitudes, where low temperatures are encountered, water droplets combine wìth the fuel to form a frozen substance referred to as "gel." The mass of "gel" or "icing" that may be generated from moisture held in suspension in jet fuel can be much greater than in gasoline