A Handheld, Low Cost, and High Throughput Sensor for Fatty Acid Methyl Ester Detection and Quantifications in Military Fuels

Although biodiesels have been increasingly used in automobiles, trains, commercial aircrafts and heating systems, they are not currently used in the military aircrafts and land vehicles because they typically do not meet the JP-8 performance criteria as specified by MIL-PRF-83133E. Unintentional contaminations by the biodiesels into the jet fuels can introduce adverse effects, including engine operability problems and potential engine flame out. Typical biodiesel is the product of methanol transesterification of plant oil triglycerides, and as such, contains a mixture of many fatty acid methyl esters (FAME). Therefore, in order to detect the contamination by the biodiesels, it is important to monitor the FAME content in the JP-8 fuel. In this proposal, Alphasense Inc. and the University of Tennessee Space Institute detail the development of a handheld, low cost and high throughput sensor for FAMEs detections and quantifications in JP-8 fuel. The proposed sensor will have the following merits: a) Simple, compact, and low cost, b) High sensitivity and selectivity, c) Large measurement dynamic range, d) Long- lasting serviceability, e) Automatic data acquisition and interpretation, and f) Reusable.