Tag Archives: fighters
Switchgrass Will Power Navy Jet Fighters With 95% Less Greenhouse Emissions
June 6, 2013 Tina Casey The more you poke at the Navy biofuel initiatives, the more you just seem to rile them up. Earlier this spring, for example, the Navy went ahead and announced a new round of $18 million in matching funds for four new biofuel pilot projects shortly after certain members of Congress tried to put a damper on its biofuel program. In the latest maneuver, today the National Renewable Energy Laboratory piled on with a press release that details all of the resources it’s going to contribute to one of the projects, a switchgrass-based jet biofuel process that is expected to involve 95 percent less greenhouse gas emissions than conventional jet fuel production. Switchgrass courtesy of USDA. NREL Goes To Bat for Navy Biofuel When the Navy announced its new biofuel refinery projects in April, the one that caught our eye involved a company we’ve been following, Cobalt Technologies . Cobalt’s biofuel process uses proprietary microorganisms and natural fermentation to break down the sugar in switchgrass and other woody biomass, converting it directly into butanol which is a precursor to standard JP5 jet fuel. The switchgrass-to-butanol phase of the project already underwent a successful test run at NREL last year. Under the partnership, NREL will use its pretreatment reactor and enzymatic digester reactors to convert switchgrass into fermentable sugars. Cobalt’s microorganisms will be deployed in the lab’s 9,000-liter fermenters to produce butanol, and the Navy will contribute its own catalyst systems to convert the butanol into jet fuel (yes, the Navy is heavily invested in alternative fuel research ). Another partner in the project, Missouri-based Show Me Energy Cooperative , will supply the switchgrass. The co-op’s headquarters will also serve as a location for a scaled-up biorefinery, assuming the pilot project is successful. In Your Face, Navy Biofuel Haters Aside from providing a rundown of all the resources at its disposal to assist Cobalt, the NREL press release goes out of its way to make it clear that if the project is successful in producing cost-competitive jet biofuel, the way has already been prepared to get the process out of the demo phase and into the market: “The results of testing will help determine whether the process is ready for commercial scale. If so, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Defense are poised to help private firms build the huge biorefineries that would be needed.” NREL further emphasizes that the success of the pilot project will lead to the growth of a domestic jet fuel production sector that does not depend on imported petroleum feedstock, serving national security interests as well as creating new private sector jobs in the energy field. That’s on top of the aforementioned 95 percent advantage in greenhouse gas management over petroleum-based jet fuel production. Read more at http://cleantechnica…oxFx4TbpHXOO.99 Continue reading
Switchgrass As Jet Fuel For Navy Fighters?
Switchgrass is on the forefront of biomass technology and it could be converted into jet fuel to power Navy planes and more. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), run by the Energy Department, is looking into ways that switchgrass could be used to fuel jets. To achieve this goal, the group has partnered with the U.S. Navy, Cobalt Technologies, and the Show Me Energy Cooperative. Producing jet fuel from biomass like switchgrass is not new. However, before jets start flying on fuel made from the grass, production would have to be both affordable and available in quantities large enough to make economic sense. “This can be an important step in the efforts to continue to displace petroleum by using biomass resources. We’re converting biomass into sugars for subsequent conversion to butanol and then to JP5 jet fuel,” Dan Schell, NREL manager for bioprocess integration research and development, said. The Department of Energy is funding four separate projects to find a renewable source of biomass that could be turned into fuel to power both land vehicles and airplanes. Switchgrass is a wild grass that grows in all latitudes of the United States and Mexico, but is found primarily in the prairies. If this wild grass could be successfully used for the production of jet fuel in the large-enough quantities, it would provide a green alternative to fossil fuels, and would not require the use of a food stock like corn. Producing jet fuel from switchgrass would produce 95 percent less greenhouse gases than refining fossil fuels. The grass is collected by the Show Me Energy Cooperative, and then converted into sugars at the NREL through the use of enzymes, after pre-treating with a weak acid. The sugars are then fed into fermenters built by Cobalt Technologies with a capacity of nearly 2,400 gallons. There, they are converted into butyl alcohol (butanol) through the action of microorganisms. Using Navy know-how and catalysts, the alcohol is converted into jet fuel back at NREL. Switchgrass grows throughout Kentucky, where it is also being studied for use as an alternative fuel, if only as biomass to be directly burned. There, researchers from the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture have had some success in using the grass to produce green energy. “We learned a whole lot and found some useful applications for the forage until a consistent biomass market develops,” Ray Smith, University of Kentucky extension forage specialist, said. Interest in the grass from the Navy could be the market for which Smith is looking. If tests are successful, the Departments of Defense and Agriculture will assist companies who wish to produce the greener fuel. Continue reading
