Formation of coke in thermal cracking of jet fuel under supercritical conditions

Abstract

Continuous-flow reactor experiments were carried out to study coke formation from thermal cracking of home-made jet fuel RP-3 under supercritical conditions. The mechanism and precursor of coke forming were analyzed. The starting cracking temperature of RP-3 fuel was determined to be 471.8°C by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Temperature-programmed oxidation and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) characterizations of the stressed tubes showed that there are three different coke species including chemisorbed carbon, amorphous carbon and filamentous coke in the solid deposits. More than 90% of coke deposits are carried away by the supercritical fluid, which has strong capabilities of extraction for coke deposits and their precursors. There were 17.1 wt-% of iron and 11.1 wt-% of chromium found on the coke surface detected by energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) which suggests carburetion on alloy. RP-3 fuel and its cracking liquids were analyzed by GC-MS,which showed that the content of alkyl benzene and alkyl naphthalene increased evidently in cracking liquids.

Keywords

coke, jet fuel, thermal cracking, supercritical, extraction