High-Efficiency Filter System for Removal of Copper Contamination from Jet Fuels

PCI is developing an innovative filter approach to eliminate copper contaminant from JP-5 fuel, based on novel, low-cost sorbents. This filter will be designed to remove metal contaminants without adversely affecting or removing fuel additives, offering a viable path to avoid costly removal and replacement of existing shipboard fueling systems. Our approach will reduce Cu contaminant under 10 ppb while maintaining fuel specifications and thermal oxidation stability standards. Capital and operating costs are low due to the system’s high capacity, simple operation and cartridge-replacement ease of renewal. At the end of Phase II we expect to develop an external, compact filter system that can be retrofitted to existing JP-5 shipboard fueling systems, capable of processing fuel at a rate of several hundred gallons per minute with a potential added cost of operation as low as under 0.1 cent per gallon of fuel processed and filter lifetime suitable for carrier operations. Our approach offers to bypass issues stemming from the presence of catalytic copper in JP-5 fuel which creates maintenance and repair issues associated with the auto-oxidative degradation of jet fuel, such as coking, for aircraft engines as well as impairs engine performance capability.