some years ago I was involved in a project wherein we converted a gas turbine patrol gunboat to a high speed research tow vessel.
The ship, a PG84 (Antelope Class) gunboat had an LM1500 gas turbine and three diesels. Two of the diesels were for low speed propulsion and one for electrical power. All engines ran on the same fuel, Navy Jet B or maybe A, I forget which.
When we converted the ship, we decided to run it on diesel fuel instead of jet fuel because of availability. All pumps, injectors and anything moving or using fuel was compatible without modification. The only thing we did was add a second fuel filter and changed those filters twice as often as we did when it was running jet fuel. The reason for that was because the storage and transport spec for diesel was looser than that for jet. The only other aspect was water inculsion. Jet fuel is hygroscopic whereas diesel can have free water. Not a big deal since the ship already had a centrifugal fuel filter. Without one you may need an osmosis filter of some sort to be safe.
The ship was actually faster on the diesel fuel than on jet fuel. It is sea level fuel and has a higher specific energy content.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
01-10-2012, 03:03 PM
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