**1. Introduction**

A large number of studies conducted in Russia and abroad have been devoted to the devel‐ opment of low-emission gas turbine engines for aircraft and power stations (see, e.g., [1]). However, the continual improvement of the environmental requirements of ICAO (Interna‐ tional Civil Aviation Organization) forces new research to be carried out.

The use of renewable biofuels obtained from plants or fatty acids is very promising. At present, aviation accounts for about 2% of man-made emissions of CO2 [2]. When using biofuel, the emission of smoke, solid carbon, carbon monoxide, sulfur and total carbon dioxide is de‐ creased. The most economically feasible is a fuel that can be mixed in any proportion with conventional jet fuel and does not require the creation of an alternative ground fuel-supply infrastructure and ad hoc adjustment of aircraft engines. Thus, the use of bio-kerosene obtained from jatropha, instead of the traditional kerosene in aircraft would reduce "carbon trace" almost by 80%.


**Table 1.** Physical properties of fuels at 20°C

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Foreign companies in recent years (2008-2014) have been intensively studying the possibility of using alternative fuels without the need for modification of aircrafts and engines. The first flight of the airplane on biofuel took place in 2008. The British Airline Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd is the proprietor of that aircraft. Boeing and its international partners are already working hard to bring biofuels from the testing stage to the manufacturing stage. Boeing 747-8 Freighter and the 787 Dreamliner made the first demonstration of transatlantic and transpacific flights on biofuels in 2011 and 2012 [3]. In May 2014, KLM began weekly flights by an Airbus A330-200 between Queen Beatrix International Airport, in Oranjestad, Aruba, and Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, Netherlands, using converted cooking oil as aircraft fuel [4]. So far, Russia has not done commercial-scale biofuel production. However, this trend has a great future because of the presence of large sown areas and water surfaces in our country [5]. Within the framework of the International Aviation and Space Salon MAKS-2013 Airbus and Rosteh State Corporation signed a partnership agreement in the field of aviation biofuels in Russia using only renewable resources.

One can find a large number of articles devoted to biofuels in the world literature (e.g. [6], [7]), a number of articles in [8]). An overview of current studies of the structure of such fuels as well as the characteristics of the processes of combustion and pollutant emissions in various types of engines is given in [9]. However, vast majority of the work are carried out in relation to internal-combustion engines or diesel engines. Studies on the atomization and combustion of biofuels compared with petroleum fuels in relation to gas turbine engines, as well as designing multi-fuel combustion chambers in the press are virtually absent. Nevertheless, one can see from Table 1 (the physical properties of various fuels corresponding to the Russian and international standards [10- 13]) that the spread in values of the fuel properties is rather wide, especially for viscosity. The present work is a continuation of researches [14] and [15]. In research [14] the design, manufacture and test of individual injectors and the burner as a whole for low-emission combustion chambers of gas-turbine engine or gas-turbine plant have been executed. Results showed that the designed spray unit can be used for different liquid fuels, both for fossil and for alternative fuels. The present work is devoted to the study of the influence of the physical properties of conventional fuels and biofuels on the characteristics of fuel–air aerosols and the combustion process. Fuel spraying was carried out by means of the developed burner.
