JP54 JET FUEL

JP54 is an abbreviation for “Jet Propulsion, A1, Colonial Grade 54″ During the refining process only 15% of the crude oil is made up of JP54 the rest of the grade is used for different types of plastic.

Developed by JP Morgan, Colonial grade JP54 was replaced by AVGAS also known as AVGAS100LL, it’s the number one low sulphur content kerosene used worldwide. It’s gasoline!

JP54 powers gas turbine aircraft engines. Jet A and A-1 have specifications that can be used in fuel worldwide. Jet B is used in cold weather elements. Commonly a number of different mixtures make up jet fuel and this relates to flash points and how the carbon numbers are distributed.

Actually most jet fuel exported from Russia etc. is “JP54” or “Colonial JP54”. It is similar to “Jet A” except the the Specific Energy is 18.4 mj/kg compared to that of 42.8 mj/kg of “Jet A”.

Also there is a slight difference in additives. The jet fuels come in a number of flavors. There is a 100+ page handbook needed to specify them all. However, all the jet fuels relate to additives to A1, which allows the plane not to leave a white tail in the sky showing where a plane has been.

Jet fuel is kerosene, and not a distillate like Gasoil/ Diesel. In the refinery, it separates above gasolines and parafins.

So, no airline will ever purchase “JP54”, there is no trading desk that will trade JP54 and you will find no oil company that sells “JP54”. They will sell Aviation fuel A1 enhanced to a variety of specifications, most usual, the Colonial Grade 54. There is no ticker on the commodity exchanges for “JP54” to allow you to see the market value of the product.

There is no special temperature considerations to consider. Remember that at 40,000 feet it is -46 Centigrade more or less regardless of where you are and the season. The only problem related to temperature is when you fill in a wet, hot climate, the air you take along in the same tanks contains a lot of water that condenses and forms spiking ice crystals that will destroy the jet turbine. The airlines will fix this with additives, usually fatty acids.

Military grade jet fuel is produced by the refineries and delivered directly since they will require special additives.



Jet fuels have a typical boiling range of 150-270®C, (which is somewhere between the boiling ranges of the gasoline and diesel we use in our road vehicles), and typically account for around 10-15% of total refinery production (3000 tonnes per day for a medium to large refinery!)