| Contents Notes |
Organic compounds in hydrocarbon fuels can, when released into the atmosphere in the presence of NOx and sunlight, affect air quality both in the vicinity of their release and in downwind regions. Potentially adverse air quality impacts include the formation of ozone and a spectrum of other photochemical oxidants, the formation of secondary aerosols, and in certain cases the formation of toxic organic products. This program was designed to experimentally investigate the potential of selected Air Force and commercial fuels for producing some or all of these impacts. A total 132 single- and multi-day outdoor environmental chamber experiments were carried out involving nine fuels. These included the petroleum-derived JP-4 and JP-8 military aviation fuels, their shale-oil-derived analogues, unleaded gasoline, diesel No. 2 fuel, and the experimental high-energy cruise-missile fuels JP-10, RJ-4, and RJ-5. The results of this study show that the Air Force fuels JP-4 and JP-8 (both petroleum- and shale-derived) are significantly less reactive with respect to rates of oxidant formation and NO to NO2 conversion than unleaded gasoline. The cruise-missile fuels JP-10, RJ-4, and RJ-5 exhibit still lower reactivities. Under the meteorological conditions encountered during this study, the same general reactivity ranking was observed for Multi-day irradiation conditions. However, under multi-day static irradiations with no further introduction of reactants, all of the military fuels studies (i.e., both kerosene-derived and high-energy) had similar maximum ozone-forming potentials. |
