PARC > Jet Fuel Research Project

JP-900 Supersonic Jet Fuel Project:
The Role of Intertek PARC

Penn State makes Jet Fuel from Coal with research support from Intertek PARC Pilot Plants

The Penn State University Energy Institute's Coal Utilization Laboratory has been working for more than 10 years on the development of a new coal-derived jet fuel intended primarily for supersonic military aircraft. Not only must supersonic fuels meet standard quality criteria, supersonic aircraft fuel requires substantially higher fuel stability, at higher temperatures. The supersonic fuel must also have a reduced tendency to produce carbon deposits on the engine and fuel system components.

The Penn State R&D program had the dual objectives of producing a jet fuel to meet stability requirements and producing a fuel with a significant portion from coal derived liquids. Producing jet fuel from coal is an important strategic objective in order to reduce dependence of military fuels from foreign crude oil.

After initial success with small quantities of fuel produced at Penn State’s main Campus in State College, PA., Penn State turned to PARC and its unique capabilities in late 1999 to conduct scale up and further process development. The new jet fuel has been dubbed JP-900 with the 900 referring to the Fahrenheit temperature at which the fuel must remain thermally stable.

To date the raw materials used in the production of JP-900 have been mixtures of commercially available products, namely coal derived liquid (CDL) produced by Koppers Chemical Co., which is a derivative of coal tar pitch produced in steel plant coke ovens and Light Cycle Oil (LCO) supplied by United Refining Company. LCO is a a by-product of petroleum refinery Fluid Catalytic Cracking units.

In order to produce specification jet fuels from this type of feed it is necessary to increase the chemical hydrogen content significantly. This is achieved by a combination of catalytic processes in which the CDL/LCO mixture is fed to a reactor system operating at high temperature and high pressure in the presence of excess hydrogen (Severe Hydroprocessing). This Hydroprocessing is conducted in two stages. In the first stage (hydrotreating) the primary reactions are sulfur and nitrogen removal. Partial aromatic saturation also occurs.

In the second stage, hydrogenation of the product from the first stage completes the saturation of the remaining aromatics, yielding a product almost aromatic free. The second stage product contains a high level of cyclo-paraffins which are the desired components of high thermal stability JP-900 type jet fuel.

PARC further developed the processing scheme and in early 2005 500 gallons of JP-900 was supplied for engine testing. The majority of this fuel was successfully tested at the USAF R&D facility at Wright-Patterson Air Force base.

The next step in the development program will see PARC construct a pilot plant facility having about ten times the capacity of that of its current largest system. The new pilot plant will then produce 4,000 gallons of fuel. For this program it has been agreed with the Air Force that the fuel will meet the Air Force’s current JP-8 fuel specification while also having the high stability characteristics of JP-900. With minor adjustments in the boiling range the fuel can also be adjusted to meet the Navy’s JP-5 spec.

It is anticipated that in future years the new PARC pilot unit will go on to produce 25,000 gallons of jet fuel for testing in larger aircraft engine static test rigs. Ultimately, several hundred thousand gallon is required to flight testing prior to the fuel being certified for actual aircraft use.