1. Rationale
Subcommittee J authorized this ballot at the July meeting to modify the acceptable use of MDA on the basis of CRC work that reported nozzle fouling results did not improve as much as thermal stability test results would suggest when thermal stability results were improved more than 15C by the addition of MDA. The proposal shown below represents a compromise: Refiners lose the flexibility to use MDA to meet thermal stability batch origination limits. This satisfies the OEM concern that 260C defines a minimum acceptable performance limit for thermal stability. While it is well accepted that copper contaminated jet fuel can be treated to recover 260C minimum thermal stability performance, copper sweetening is no longer used in jet fuel refining so copper contamination is avoidable in refining. Banning MDA addition to uncertified turbine fuel avoids the issue that MDA may, in some instances, provide less benefit in engines than in the thermal stability test. Turbine fuel suppliers gain explicit flexibility to use 2 mg/L MDA to mitigate field problems without a lot of testing and paperwork on the basis that the fuel originated with acceptable thermal stability performance so there is essentially no risk in mitigating the impact of field contamination by the addition of a low dose of MDA.
Keywords
aviation turbine fuel; avtur; Jet A; Jet A-1; jet fuel; turbine fuel: Aviation turbine fuels--specifications; Petroleum products--specifications; Aviation turbine fuels--specifications; Petroleum products--specifications;
Citing ASTM Standards
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