One-Step Production of Water Barrier Filter for Super Clean and Dry Jet Fuel

Free water and particulate solids are fuel contaminants that will lead to increase in fuel and service costs, damage to expensive engine components, and reduction of aircraft service life. Existing three-stage fuel filtration system includes a primary filter/coalescer stage, a secondary separator stage and a tertiary super-absorbent polymer (SAP) filter monitors to remove water and particulate contaminations from jet fuel. SAP particles may be flushed downstream of elements, which has caused eight aircraft incidents from 2010 to 2017. The Energy Institute (EI) has published a new regulation for a novel aviation fuel water barrier filter for alternative technology and will withdraw the specification for SAP filter monitors by 2020. However, no qualified water barrier product is on the market currently. Zymeron proposes to develop a superhydrophobic and superoleophilic water barrier filter that can permeate fuel with “zero” contaminations and exhibit no media migration. The one-step preparation procedure and simple assembling process for filter media and element will significantly reduce production complexity and material costs.