Tetra Ethyl Silicate in a Jet Engine

My suggestion is that a small proportion of tetra ethyl silicate should be dissolved in the jet aviation fuel.

A modern jet engine is a very highly refined piece of technology and is of course highly safety critical; so what makes me believe that, say1%, of another chemical can be dissolved in its fuel without causing problems?

There are three parts to this question.

-the storage and pumping as a liquid.

-the burning

-the cooling in the turbine.

So first –the storage and pumping of the solution of tetra ethyl silicate in kerosene.

If aviation kerosene and tetra ethyl silicate (tes from now on) are in glass jars they are indistinguishable. They are both oily clear liquids. They also mix in any proportion to form a clear oily liquid.

Aviation kerosene (jet A in the industry) is not a single chemical. It is a mixture of many hydrocarbons with C numbers (ie number of carbon atoms in a molecule) from about 6 to 20. Tes has 8 carbon atoms of the 33 in the molecule but also Silicon with twice carbon’s atomic weight and four oxygen atoms. This gives an equivalent C number of 14 which puts it within the range of the majority of Jet A’s components (11,12,13&14 see page5 in http://www.galcit.caltech.edu/EDL/publications/reprints/galcit_fm99-4.pdf )

Also jet A doesn’t only contain pure hydrocarbons. There are small proportions of various compounds containing oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur and other elements. I believe that a similar compound containing silicon will make no difference to the storage or pumping of the fuel into the jet engine.

Obviously this needs to be properly tested but such testing is the bread and butter of the aircraft industry and could be completed very quickly.

Next- the burning of the solution.

More will be added soon!!!! 2^nd Jan!!