Experimental Study on the Influence of Fuel Types on the Green Onboard Inert Gas Generation System

Abstract Theoretical studies have shown that fuel type can significantly affect the performance of the green onboard inert gas generation system (GOBIGGS). In this study, a microchannel monolithic catalytic reactor was designed and fabricated, and a ground-based experimental platform for GOBIGGS was established. The operational reliability of the system was also verified. Combined with the compositional analysis of three aviation fuels using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), the effects of fuel type on inerting rate, inerting effectiveness, product formation, and reactor temperature response were systematically investigated. The results show that the system can reduce the O 2 volume fraction in the tank vapor space to 12% within 45.5 min, reaching the commonly used inerting threshold for civil aircraft fuel tanks. Under the same experimental conditions, fuels with higher light-component contents exhibited faster system inerting rates. Because different fuel components have different hydrogen–carbon (H/C) ratios, fuel components with higher H/C ratios consume more O 2 to generate the same amount of CO 2 during the inerting reaction. In addition, the temperature of the monolithic catalytic reactor was closely related to the reaction rate. A higher inerting reaction rate led to a faster reactor temperature rise and a higher peak temperature. This study experimentally examined the apparent influence of fuel type on the inerting performance of a closed-loop GOBIGGS. The results provide engineering data under the tested conditions and may support future studies on fuel adaptability evaluation, reactor thermal management, and system operation optimization.