Dirt devil: Airlines filter through info on latest fuel quality issue

At the Platts Middle Distillates Conference in Antwerp, Belgium, in late January, those attending spoke a diesel-focused language, this being Europe where people mostly drive diesel cars even after the VW scandal.

So I had to filter out a lot of information to get any dirt on jet fuel — also a middle distillate. And what did they talk about for jet fuel? Not prices or inventories. But filters. And dirt.

Panelist Mike Farmery can make aviation fuel quality sound entertaining. A longtime global fuel technical manager for Shell Aviation who now runs the consultancy Clear and Bright, he described trends in jet fuel quality to the nearly 100 people at the conference.

He touched on the nearly ended spec battle to allow FAME (fatty acids methyl esters — think Crisco in an engine instead of a fryer) for greater pipeline movement as a biofuel, which jet engine makers have opposed for years. Water contamination and thermal stability issues came up. But those areas have trended for a while in airline circles, where it’s certainly a more serious issue if your fuel fails to perform at 30,000 feet above ground in a plane rather than inches off the ground in a car.

But Farmery noted that more trading and shipping of jet fuel worldwide has meant more time on potentially older, rusty ships. Many refineries around the world have closed and converted into storage terminals in recent years, while new megarefineries in the Far East and Middle East have emerged along with expanded refineries in the US. This trend has increased the shipping of jet fuel and has made managing dirt contamination more challenging.

It's not hard to get rid of dirt, mind you. But you have to be more diligent, as anybody who's ever camped in the desert or the beach knows. It's more time-consuming to put in more or better filters and change them more often. It's also more costly.

Blog post continues below...

Request a free trial of: US Marketscan
	US Marketscan provides you with a daily market overview of the major refined products in the United States delivered via e-mail. It carries spot prices for all key products traded in the US market. Gasoline, heating oil, jet fuel, residual fuel and naphtha prices are listed for the Atlantic Coast, Gulf Coast, Group 3, Chicago and West Coast markets. Each issue also includes insightful market commentary.

He outlined several cases of problems detected at import terminals, including one European terminal where it took 10 days to process fuel and $150,000 cost in filters that needed to be changed every eight hours.

Farmery also noted that ships are required to come to port with their cargo inert (non-explosive). That usually meaning using carbon dioxide exhaust gas from the engines. Cheap and easy, but it causes more soot and sulfuric acids to get into the jet fuel than normal.

There are tight checks to control particle sizes in fuel coming out of the refinery, and aircraft are ultimately protected by ultra-fine filters on fueling equipment. But fewer checks or just self-assessment checks exist in the middle of the supply chain, so it could be easily overlooked.

Such particulate contamination has risen high on the agenda for jet fuel forums, as experts look at the number and size of particles in the specifications. "The spec just isn't very good at qualifying what is dirt," Farmery said.

Import terminals may be the best place to catch the problem, through on-site filtration to deal with problem cargoes. But easier test methods would help, along with contamination limits along many points of the supply chain.

"We can fix it, but it's about allocating costs and filtration," he said. "Thirty-five thousand feet is no place to change filters."