The oxidative stability of synthetic fuels and fuel blends with monoaromatic blending components

Alternative jet fuels and blends are required to meet a minimum aromatic concentration of 8%. It has been proposed that some monoaromatic compounds may make suitable single component aromatics to meet this minimum. One monoaromatic of interest is p-cymene which can be efficiently produced from eucalyptus oil. The oxidative stability of p-cymene and a range of monoaromatics blended with a range of alternative fuels are examined. Their oxygen induction times and peroxide formation under accelerated storage conditions are reported. It was found that some monoaromatics can impact final blend stability and that p-cymene produces very high levels of peroxides with all fuels examined. It was also observed that the choice of conventional fuel used for blending also influenced the blend stability.