Jet a Fuel Additives
This, however, became a questionable practice in the late 1900s. Experts feared that high fuel temperatures may have lead to caking of engine parts as the fuel burned through. In the 1980s, companies began adding jet a fuel additives in order to prevent this caking and dirtying of engine parts.÷
The additive introduced to the jet a fuels was innovative and it raised the temperature of stability by over 99 degrees Fahrenheit. The idea of these additives is to reduce cleaning necessity, reduce residue in combustors, and reduce smoke and particles.
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Jet a fuel additives are chemicals that are added to the fuels in small amounts. These jet a fuel additives are meant to make the engine of planes run better. The amount of each chemical that is added varies by its purpose. There are several important jet a fuel additives, each of them having their own specific purpose.
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The first important jet a fuel additive is tetra-ethyl lead or TEL. This additive prevents the combustion of fuels. This was only recently added as a jet a fuel additive, but has been used in cars for decades.
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The next important jet a fuel additive is actually an antioxidant that prevents viscous build up on engine parts.
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There is another jet a fuel additive that actually acts as a lubricant, and prevents the breakdown of important jet engine parts. These are often used in pipelines and fuel tanks.
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Anti freeze jet a fuel additives are added to all jet a fuel now. This is done because in the past, condensation from the combustion of fuels built up and froze in engine parts. This obviously led to difficulty with planes that were flying in low temperature zones. The freezing of engine parts had in the past lead to outstanding profit loss for airline companies until this additive was included in jet a fuels.
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One of the most important additives that has not been put into jet a fuels is an additive that prevents the oxidation of metals used in engine parts. This is key because the oxidation of metal leads to rusting, which significantly wears engine parts. This lead to the rapid corrosion of engine parts which at one time cost the airline industry millions of dollars or more per year to fix. Since its incorporation into fuels, this jet a fuel additive has probably saved airline companies billions of dollars in maintenance and repairs.
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The last of the most important jet a fuel additives is a power booster. These chemicals actually give the engines of large passenger jets the necessary power boosts to take off and accelerate to higher altitudes. This is obviously an essential additive because the planes could not function without the power boosters to take off. Surprisingly, the additive is simply made from methanol and water. At one time, the power booster was actually just made of water, however it was eventually found that the incorporation of methanol significantly increased the power of the jets takeoff.