Award-Winning Chemist Brews Jet Fuel and Beer
The U.S. fighter aircraft deployed in the Persian Gulf are powered by jet fuel that University of Dayton Research Institute chemist Steven Zabarnick helped to develop. His research in jet fuel chemistry is credited with saving the U.S. Air Force millions of dollars by reducing the costs of engine maintenance, fuel, and logistics.
For his career accomplishments, Zabarnick, who is also a professor in mechanical and aerospace engineering at UD, received the Outstanding Engineers and Scientists Award from the Affiliate Societies Council of the Engineering and Science Foundation of Dayton on February 20. The ASC comprises about 50 engineering and science-related professional societies whose combined membership in the Dayton area exceeds 15,000.
Zabarnick is a key contributor to the development of JP-8+100, an additive package that increases the thermal stability of military fuel by 100 degrees Fahrenheit and helps prevent deposits that can clog fuel lines. JP-8+100, which can also be used in transport and cargo aircraft, is primarily used in fighters because they subject fuel to higher temperatures. The Air Force uses more than two billion gallons of jet fuel containing these additives each year and realizes significant savings through reduced engine maintenance costs.
Zabarnick and his colleagues in UD’s von Ohain Fuels and Combustion Center are turning up the heat and working on JP-8+225, an effort to increase military fuel’s thermal stability by 225 degrees. “The project is extremely challenging because at 225 degrees, 100 percent of the oxygen in the fuel is consumed” and produces 10 to 20 times the amount of deposits, Zabarnick said.
The researcher is also developing additives to work at the other end of the temperature scale. A low-temperature fuel called JP-8+100LT is under development for use in reconnaissance aircraft, which fly at high altitudes and for long durations. The fuel in the wing tanks is exposed to low temperatures for long periods. JP-8+100LT would provide a low-cost alternative to the currently required specialty fuel that “is very expensive and has to be shipped around the world,” he said.
Zabarnick’s work would allow reconnaissance aircraft to use standard fuels, which, given the right combination of additives, would still flow at low temperatures. Zabarnick hopes to have a fuel developed by next year. “We have some excellent candidates but need to tweak the additives to make them combust more readily,” he said.
He is also in the process of developing a chemical kinetic mechanism that allows jet fuels’ oxidation and deposition rates to be predicted. “Fuel deposits are produced by oxidation. When fuel and air are heated you have autoxidation. We’ve developed a mechanism that can show the chemical reactions going on and predict when and where deposits will happen,” he said. This information is useful to aircraft designers who can then design to minimize fuel deposits in narrow fuel passages. Cutting fuel deposits saves on maintenance costs and decreases the chance for component failure.
Zabarnick’s love of chemistry extends beyond jet fuel. A member of the Dayton Regional Amateur Fermentation Technologists (DRAFT) group, Zabarnick has won awards for beer he brews in his Dayton garage. His hefeweizen – a wheat beer – won best of show in a beerfest competition; his traditional draft bock earned an award; but his favorite is his homebrewed India pale ale.
While Zabarnick speaks rhapsodically about the chemistry involved – customizing water ions, reacting starches to sugars and isomerizing alpha acids – he’s also a realist. “Brewing is 90 percent cleaning. Success in brewing is related to good sanitation,” he said, noting he spends a lot of time in the basement washing brewing supplies.
But “you end up with something fun to drink.”
By Deborah McCarty Smith
Campus Report, April 4, 2003
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