The U.S. Navy's Office of Naval Research (ONR) is sponsoring advanced research in a variety of component areas, with the goal of obtaining a three to four time improvement in overall system power density for logistics fuel-based fuel cell generators. The technology development programs ongoing as part of the ONR advanced fuel cell program are addressing numerous areas of process improvements. One of the most critical is the ability to remove sulfur from F-76, JP-5 and JP-8 Navy logistics fuel, without the use of HDS reactors and similar equipment. Such removal of refractory sulfur compounds is a challenge due to the nature of the molecules themselves, as well as their high concentrations, up to 5000 ppm of sulfur.

The use of fractionization/distillation has been well established in laboratory demonstrations, coupled to desulfurization sorbent beds. Work performed by the Navy and its partnering institutions has shown the benefits of utilizing a majority light cut fraction from a parent fuel, with respect to sorbent capacity. This paper shows the results of the fractionation of various Navy logistics fuels, containing various sulfur content, through a pervaporation-based membrane separation process. Discussion of the process, as well as the separation behavior and speciation of components of interest is provided. Additionally, an introduction to the practical sorbent performance implications is also provided, without going into substantial detail regarding adsorbent formulations and that program overall.