Aviation Fuels ASTM Standards

ASTM, the American Society for Testing and Materials, is an international voluntary standards organization that develops and produces technical standards for materials, products, systems and services. The society creates the system of standards for the fuel industry.

Standards must be reviewed periodically - at least at a five-year interval - and may be revised more frequently than specified if technology changes. Some of the biofuels standards set by ASTM include the following:

• ASTM D6751- the biodiesel standard
• ASTM D7566 - a jet fuel standard
• ASTM D5798 - the E85 standard
• ASTM D4806 - ethanol production standard

Subcommittee D02.J0 on Aviation Fuels in ASTM International Committee D02 on Petroleum Products and Lubricants officially approved the addition of the jet fuel annex to the alternative fuel specification D7566 titled “Standard Specification for Aviation Turbine Fuel Containing Synthesized Hydrocarbons.” The fuel specification allows up to a 50/50 blend of biobased components with conventional Jet-A fuel. The new annex will set fuel properties for what’s called “Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids” (HEFA) fuel derived from biomassfeedstocks such as camelina, jatropha or algae, as well as production control criteria of the fuel for aviation use. The revised standard was approved July 1.

Aviation fuel producers, distributors, airport fuel farms and airlines in the global aviation community will be able to verify fuel quality and performance by testing according to the D7566 specification requirements. With this new edition, D7566 includes new, specific requirements for the biobased synthetic fuel component such as thermal stability, distillation control and trace material amounts. After blending with conventional jet fuel, new lubricity, distillation and composition requirements in D7566 must also be met. As a result, the blended jet fuel used in airplanes is essentially identical to conventional jet fuel and doesn’t differ in performance or operability.

D7566 fuels also meet the requirements of ASTM D1655, “Specification for Aviation Turbine Fuels”, which has been used by the aviation community for decades for the quality control and distribution of conventional aviation turbine fuel. This allows these new D7566 fuels to be seamlessly integrated into the distribution infrastructure and onto certified aircraft as D1655 fuels.

See also: ASTM, ASTM Committee D02

External links:

Bryan Sims. "ASTM approves biojet annex for hydroprocessed esters." Biorefining Magazine July 6, 2011.