Conversion of tar sand bitumen and heavy crude to high yields of aviation turbine fuel

The production of specification quality military aviation turbine fuel from low grade domestic fossil energy resources is of interest to the United States Air Force. This paper describes a U.S. Air Force sponsored study of the conversion of tar sands bitumens and heavy crudes into high yields of specification quality JP-4 and JP-8 aviation turbine type fuels. Primary upgrading of residuum fractions was via high severity hydrovisbreaking. Downstream refining included naphtha hydrotreating and distillate hydrocracking. Both bench-scale and pilot plant studies contributed to development of a plant design and process economics for a 7950 m3 per stream day (50,000 BPSD) refinery. Process simulations predicted nearly 90 vol% yield of JP-4 type fuel, or 50 vol% yield of JP-8 type fuel, with less than 2 vol% net production of residual fuel. Process conditions as well as physical and chemical characteristics of the specification quality turbine fuels are reported.