Jet Fuel

Jet fuel or aviation turbine fuel is a type of aviation fuel designed for use in aircraft powered by gas-turbine engines. It is colorless to straw-colored in appearance. The most commonly used fuels for commercial aviation are Jet A and Jet A-1, which are produced to a standardized international specification. The only other jet fuel commonly used in civilian turbine-engine powered aviation is Jet B, which is used for its enhanced cold-weather performance.

Jet fuel is a mixture of a variety of hydrocarbons. Because the exact composition of jet fuel varies widely based on petroleum source, it is impossible to define jet fuel as a ratio of specific hydrocarbons. Jet fuel is therefore defined as a performance specification rather than a chemical compound.[1] Furthermore, the range of molecular mass between hydrocarbons (or different carbon numbers) is defined by the requirements for the product, such as the freezing point or smoke point. Kerosene-type jet fuels (including Jet A and Jet A-1, JP-5, and JP-8) have the majority of their carbon number distribution between 8 and 16 (carbon atoms per molecule), while more-refined, more-expensive wide-cut or naphtha-type jet fuels (including Jet B and JP-4) have most of their a carbon chains 10 to 14 atoms long for enhanced performance in polar regions.