Lufthansa starts the In-Service-Evaluation (ISE) for BASF’s new water scavenger additive for jet fuel – Kerojet® Aquarius

Lufthansa starts the In-Service-Evaluation (ISE) for BASF’s new water scavenger additive for jet fuel – Kerojet® Aquarius

Ludwigshafen, Germany, 15-Aug-2018 — /EuropaWire/ — BASF and Lufthansa have successfully started the In-Service-Evaluation (ISE) for BASF’s new water scavenger additive for jet fuel – Kerojet^® Aquarius. The ISE marks an important step in the commercialization for this innovative additive.

In the course of the ISE, BASF’s additive solution is used on designated flight routes on Airbus air planes. On July 24, the ISE started successfully with an Airbus A340-600 between Munich and San Francisco. The advantage of the additive is that cost intensive measures to extract water at mandatory intervals can be reduced as water accumulation will be minimized. In addition, time consuming and expensive stop overs in maintenance can be avoided, thereby increasing aircraft utilization and making the operation more cost effective.

“The implementation of Kerojet^® Aquarius will constitute a milestone in improving both flight safety and aircraft usage. Applying Aquarius will avoid the presence of ice in wing tanks and further improves the margins of safety”, says Thorsten Lange, Head of Fuel Purchasing Lufthansa Group.

“We are quite happy to have reached this key milestone for the commercialization of Kerojet^® Aquarius,” states Antonino Raffaele-Addamo, Head of Global Marketing Jet Fuel Additives, Fuel and Lubricant Solutions, BASF SE. “Reaching this point after many years of hard work and commitment as well as extensive testing has only been possible with a clear vision and long-term strategy in place. The very close team work between Lufthansa and BASF from the beginning of the project has been supported by many other leading industry partners in the aviation industry.”

Kerojet^® Aquarius is a unique and easy-to-use performance additive that supports water management in aircraft fuel systems as a critical safety and maintenance parameter for airlines. Kerojet^® Aquarius disperses the water contained in kerosene, respectively the fuel tank, and the water is removed from the aircraft’s fuel tank during the normal combustion process in the turbine.

BASF and Lufthansa expect the full details of the ISE to be available by the end of the year, after which the broader commercialization of Kerojet^® Aquarius is expected to start.

More information on Kerojet^® Aquarius can be found at:  www.basf.com/kerojet_aquarius

About Lufthansa
The Lufthansa Group is the world’s largest aviation group in terms of turnover as well as the market leader in Europe’s airline sector. The Lufthansa Group is divided into the three strategic areas of Hub Airlines, Point-to-Point Business and Service Companies. The Group’s network carriers, with their premium brands of Lufthansa, SWISS and Austrian Airlines, serve its home market from their Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich and Vienna hubs. With its Eurowings brand, the Group also offers short- and long-haul point-to-point services in the growing private travel market. And with its service companies, which are all global market leaders in their individual industries, the Lufthansa Group has found success in further areas of the aviation business. Lufthansa Group airlines serve 343 destinations in 103 countries, offering 15,415 weekly frequencies. The current fleet is comprised of 728 aircraft (as of December 2017) and the Group will continue to take delivery of new aircraft until 2025. In 2017, the Lufthansa Group has more than 130,000 employees, welcomed 130 million passengers aboard its flights and generated sales of around EUR 35.6 billion.

About BASF
At BASF, we create chemistry for a sustainable future. We combine economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility. The more than 115,000 employees in the BASF Group work on contributing to the success of our customers in nearly all sectors and almost every country in the world. Our portfolio is organized into five segments: Chemicals, Performance Products, Functional Materials & Solutions, Agricultural Solutions and Oil & Gas. BASF generated sales of €64.5 billion in 2017. BASF shares are traded on the stock exchanges in Frankfurt (BAS), London (BFA) and Zurich (BAS). Further information at  www.basf.com.

SOURCE: BASF SE