WP1
A through literature review of the methods investigated for the removal of dissolved oxygen and on-board per-treatment of fuel was completed. Several studies were identified which utilized sparging or membrane separation techniques for the removal of oxygen on-board. No studies were identified showing the per-treatment of fuel on-board, however a limited number of studies investigated the use of sorbents as part of separation processed for the identification of trace components in fuels.
WP2 Experimental work
Significant delays have been encountered in the supply of suitable monolith catalyst and sorbent materials from the suppliers selected by the project. This has delayed the deliverable D3 as an optimisation of bed size was not possible without the material. This material was delivered to Sheffield on the 2nd August and testing work has commenced.
Whilst this work was delayed, the project, in conjunction with the topic manager, carried out work assessing the potential sorbent materials using a small scale thermal stability test methods.
Oxygen separation is delayed by the early absorbtion of Nitrogen containing species and only proceeds once this has reached a saturation absorbtion. This work was reported at the IASH (International Association for the Stability and Handling of Fuels) conference in Rome, September 2017.
WP 3 Modelling work
Computational Models have been developed to understand the interaction of specific Zeolite and Sorbant structures with dissolved oxygen and other hetroatomic species representative of those in Jet fuel.
The challenge remaining is to link the quantum chemistry results to the diffusion modelling in a macro scale which can be used for the design rules for a full scale device (this will be validated against the experimental work). A 1-D model has been developed in COMSOL and can predict the rate of oxygen and limited polar species removal from the fuel. A reaction rate term is used in the mass transport equation through a porous medium with a constant porosity to model the capture process.
A further investigation into the Si/Aluminia ratio in the zeolite is also underway using computational techniques as a result in the long lead times associated with experimental material becoming available.
WP 4 Optimisation
Based on the work in WP2, an design concept for the sorbent structure has been proposed using a monolith structure rather than a pellet based design, which was the previous best possible design. The monolith structure has a number of advantages for the application in flowing systems - it has a lower pressure drop across it and a more benign failure mode compared to other methods for carrying the active material.
WP 5 TRL5 Design work
Results of the scale up laws developed for the DEOX module in WP5 suggest that the developed design will be suitable for use in the TRL 5 rig, with a reactor bed volume of around 10L. However, the full scale system will be prohibitively large for use onboard an aircraft and may be an option for use as a ground handling process as part of the fuel handling and quality control, or at the skin of the aircraft. A TRL5 system has been designed using the pellet option due to the lack of availability of monolith structure within the project. This resulted in a large pressure drop, which had to be overcome by high inlet pump pressures on the TRL5 test rig.
WP 6 TRL 5 testing
Progress was achieved within this WP and the experimental facility was shown to be capable of adaptation to include the DEOX module. Nevertheless, due to several delays and technical constraints, the TRL5 testing for the project was not successfully completed.
