Aviation Fuels Research Lab

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The mission of the AFRL is to conduct evaluation of chemical and physical properties of alternative aviation fuels to ensure fuelâ€TMs safety in the engine and in-flight testing environments. 

Aviation Fuels Research Lab features not only the capacity for aviation fuel testing and analyses, but it is also a research and development center for investigating fuel combustion mechanisms and detailed engine exhaust gas analyses for the mitigation of environmental impacts of alternative fuels. The lab is collaborating with other FAA research divisions, universities and national labs in the development of biomass based commercial alternative aviation fuels (CAAFS) to ensure that future air transportation will be safer, cleaner, more energy efficient and with fewer harmful emissions in order to keep our skies free of contamination. The Aviation Fuels Research Lab is capable of carrying out more than 25 ASTM standard tests and analyses for aviation gasolines, turbine fuels, aviation diesel fuels and biomass based aviation fuels. All tests are conducted with state-of-the-art instruments. The high precision and sensitive two dimensional gas chromatograph (GCXGC) coupled with the time of flight mass spectral meter (TOFMS) has a wide range of applications including the identification of fuel impurities, analyses of fuel oxidation intermediates and identification of fuel combustion products and exhaust gas compositions. This instrument will raise our lab research and testing to a significantly higher level. In airplane engine exhaust gas analyses, a thermal desorption unit and a head space autosampler will be coupled with GCXGC/TOFMS system for the detailed analyses of fuel combustion productions including unburned hydrocarbons, volatile hydrocarbons (VOCs) and toxic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The lab is also capable collecting non-volatile carbons (soot) and analyzing the morphology and compositions.