9th February 202230th March 2022 Blending of SAF’s (Sustainable aviation fuel) Aviation is one of the key areas where improvement in alternative fuels is most focused in the drive towards net-zero emissions. With the likelihood of aircraft power being generated from hydrogen or electric still more than 20 years away, fuel companies are having to look to innovative solutions in order to meet their own targets for carbon capture and sustainability in the coming decades. SAF (Sustainable Aviation Fuel) plays a big part in this by reducing Co2 levels emitted by aircraft, as a high proportion of the fuel can be made up from used cooking oil, domestic waste and wooden biomass. Blending of regenerated oils with traditional fuel has to be done accurately to internationally recognised ASTM standards in order to allow the existing storage, delivery and fuelling systems to be retained, so the accuracy of blending systems in this process is critical. Bio-Diesel and Ethanol blends are now both well-established around the world, used in day to day fuelling of our cars at petrol stations. Currently for most common vehicles there are percentage mix limits for these products that can be used to make up the fuel we use so that we do not risk damage to engines. These fuels are blended in increasingly different ratios to provide the ideal mix of energy and performance without the requirements for vehicle adaptation and supply chain modifications in order to handle these, sometimes difficult fluids. Being able to blend products at the loading point reduces the need for blended day tanks on the tank farm, and also provides homogenous mixing to reduce separation of the product during the transport phase. Contrec blend and additive controllers are capable of blending two products accurately either on a continuous stream or as a batch amount being delivered into truck compartments or rail cars. These can be supplied as control room instruments, field mount weatherproof or Explosion Proof for installation at the point of loading. Contrec blending instruments can operate as stand-alone instruments but they also have Modbus communications outputs so are capable of working with 3rd party preset controllers at the load rack or via a supervisory system or TAS (Terminal Automation System).
