Thermal stability and heat sink of microalgae aviation fuels

The thermal stability and heat sink of aviation fuel play an important role in the reliability, safety and performance of aircraft and engine. Two types of typical microalgae aviation fuel were investigated to assess thermal stability and heat sink by thermo-gravimetric-differential scanning calorimetry in comparison with the standard turbine jetfuels RP-3. The results show that the temperatures of the end point and maximum weight loss point are higher than that of the standard turbine jetfuels RP-3, which indicates that heat sink includes both physical heat sink and chemical heat sink in weight loss interval. The thermo-gravimetric curve defines two dimensionless parameters including initiation temperature and burnout index, which represent the initial decomposition temperature and the deposition characteristics respectively. The combination of the two parameters can be used to assess the thermal stability and heat sink. Isochrysis based blend aviation fuel presented the carbon deposit with the increase of heat sink, while chlorella based blend aviation fuel did not present the carbon deposit with the increase of heat sink. The results indicate that optimizing the composition of alkane with high carbon number could increase heat sink and decrease carbon deposit. It is feasible both theoretically and technically.