Air Force #1?
Posted on March 22, 2008
Well, the US Air Force at least wants to be the first military branch to move its energy dependence from oil to coal.
They depict the reasoning for the move at their domestic facilities as an attempt to address national security concerns which would arise with some major event disrupting access to current energy sources. The decision they have made is that their is way more coal in the ground than there is oil and we should be using it. Obviously, as straightforward as that sounds, there are more elements that will come to life with any attempt to initiate the massive infrastructure necessary to reach production stage.
It is estimated that a single plant would cost 5 billion dollars. Not a lot for the military perhaps, but that’s just for one plant and the Air Force will need at least 7 in full operation to meet the ambitious goal they have set of providing half their jet fuel needs by 2016.
They plan to let bids in May of this year. They will provide the land (in Montana) for the plant but everything else will be under contract. However, they will have to do a lot to satisfy the pollution ‘experts’ in Congress and elsewhere that they can meet the laws passed in 2007 that require any synthetic fuel production to meet or exceed the standards set for petroleum. That may be a tall task for coal plus it doesn’t even address what the emissions level of the burned fuel will be.
This could be an interesting development for the coal industry as a huge user like a Federal agency or military branch could provide the needed impetus to move forward a practically stagnant industry.
However if oil moves back to $60 (you dreamer, you), this would all become moot (or soot, or something or other), as national security would be the only possible leg this project would have to stand on.
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Syntrolium (SYNM) produced this fuel from natural gas.
12/19/2006 - EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — For the first time in 36 years, the Air Force Flight Test Center commander at Edwards piloted a milestone flight as part of a test program here Friday.
A seasoned B-52 test pilot, Maj. Gen. Curtis Bedke took the opportunity to pilot a B-52 on its first flight running all eight engines on a Fischer-Tropsch synthetic fuel blend.
This fuel has been certified by DOD as a drop in replacement for JP8. The flight mentioned above was a 50/50 mix.
SYNM can produce the same fuel from coal and from animals guts and the like.
SYNM and Tyson Foods are building a plant near New Orleans to annually convert 500 million pounds of animal parts to 73 million gallons of syn-fuel.
In the near-term, military or otherwise, looks like our best approach may be bird shot.
Fire a mass of small bullets and hope some of them turn into big producers.
Just like turns, one good invention may deserve another.
Did I mention I own shares of SYNM?
U.S. Air Force certification
Syntroleum, a publicly traded US company (Nasdaq: SYNM) has produced over 400,000 gallons of diesel and jet fuel from the Fischer-Tropsch process using natural gas and not coal at its demonstration plant near Tulsa, Oklahoma. Syntroleum is working to commercialize its licensed Fischer-Tropsch technology via coal-to-liquid plants in the US, China, and Germany, as well as gas-to-liquid plants internationally. Using natural gas as a feedstock, the ultra-clean, low sulfur fuel has been tested extensively by the US Department of Energy, the Department of Transportation, and most recently, Syntroleum has been working with the U. S. Air Force to develop a synthetic jet fuel blend that will help the Air Force to reduce its dependence on imported petroleum. The Air Force, which is the U.S. military’s largest user of fuel, began exploring alternative fuel sources in 1999. On December 15, 2006, a B-52 took off from Edwards AFB, California for the first time powered solely by a 50-50 blend of JP-8 and Syntroleum’s FT fuel. The seven-hour flight test was considered a success. The goal of the flight test program is to qualify the fuel blend for fleet use on the service’s B-52s, and then flight test and qualification on other aircraft.[9]
On August 8, 2007, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne certified the B-52H as fully approved to use the FT blend, marking the formal conclusion of the test program.[10]
This program is part of the Department of Defense Assured Fuel Initiative, an effort to develop secure domestic sources for the military energy needs. The Pentagon hopes to reduce its use of crude oil from foreign producers and obtain about half of its aviation fuel from alternative sources by 2016.[9] With the B-52 now approved to use the FT blend, the USAF will use the test protocols developed during the program to certify the C-17 Globemaster III and then the B-1B to use the fuel. The Air Force intends to test and certify every airframe in its inventory to use the fuel by 2011.[10]
Demonstration testing of the C-17 burning Fischer-Tropsch fuel was completed on October 22, 2007 at Edwards Airforce Base. Testing consisted of a ground test and two flights which demonstrated engine performance throughout the C-17 flight envelope and during some operationally representative maneuvers. Test data is still being reviewed by the 418th FLTS to validate the subjective results of the test. On December 17, 2007 A C-17 Globemaster III using the synthetic fuel blend lifted off shortly before dawn from McChord Air Force Base, Washington, and flew to McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey, where it was greeted by politicians and by officials from the airline and energy industries. Based on the two successful tests, the Air Force hopes to certify all of its C-17 fleet for the synthetic fuel mixture early in 2008