Fuel Contamination on the Large Transport Airplanes

Abstract

There have been different cases of aircraft accidents, due to the water contamination in the aviation fuel. Since large transport airplanes fly at very high altitudes, where ambient temperature can reach -6°C, water may freeze causing blockages in the fuel lines, filters, booster pumps, etc., and lead to engine thrust reduction and or engine shut down. Microbiological contamination of the fuel, due to microbial growth in the fuel, it can result in fuel tank structure corrosion, and in turn, leads to fuel leak. Fuel leak on hot engine surfaces or hot brakes can result into fire or explosion. In addition, the biological microorganisms in aviation fuel, can cause other technical problems such as it leads to fuel quantity gauge malfunctions, and fuel filter clogging. Therefore, it is important to eliminate or reduce the presence of the water and microbial growth in the in the fuel. The aim of this paper is to increase flight safety by minimizing the effect of water and biological contamination in the jet fuel. The proposed methodology, water contamination is eliminated by extracting water from fuel by using water/fuel separator and in addition, microbial contamination eliminated by uses the ultrasonic technology to destroy the bacteria in the fuel. Several experiments performed by taking fuel samples checked for presence of microbes, and then subjected to ultrasonic waves. The fuel sample located in a stainless steel and where it subjected to the ultrasonic externally (ultrasonic transmitter) located outside the tank and not on direct contact with fuel. The result show ultrasonic can heat up the fuel, and destroy the microorganisms effectively. During the experiments it has been observed that, for every five minutes of subjecting the fuel sample of 600 milliliters to ultrasonic of 42 KHz with power intensity of 50 watts, the fuel temperature increased by an average of about 6.2°C.