Based on UOP press release - UOP LLC, a Honeywell (NYSE: HON) company, announced today it will accelerate research and development on renewable energy technology to convert vegetable and algal oils to military jet fuels.
The goal of the $6.7 million project funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is to develop and commercialize a process to produce Jet Propellant 8 (JP-8) used by U.S. and NATO militaries.
“The focus of our renewable energy efforts has been to develop technologies that align with today’s standard refinery practices, but allow a broader range of feedstock options,” said Jennifer Holmgren, director of UOP’s Renewable Energy and Chemicals business unit. “We are confident that we have assembled a strong team of experts that will be successful in proving the viability of biofeedstock technologies for JP-8 and other jet fuels, while offering the U.S. military another option for sustainable liquid fuels critical to their programs.”
UOP will work with Honeywell Aerospace, Cargill, Arizona State University, Sandia National Laboratories and Southwest Research Institute on the project, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2008. Fuel produced by the new process is expected to achieve 90 percent energy efficiency for maximum conversion of feed to fuel, reduced waste and reduced production costs. UOP expects the technology will be viable for future use in the production of jet fuel for commercial jets.
Approximately 4.5 billion gallons of JP-8 fuel are used by the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army and NATO annually. The kerosene-based, high-performance fuel is less flammable and less hazardous than other fuel options, allowing for better safety and combat survivability. In addition to jets, JP-8 is also used to fuel heaters, stoves, tanks, and other vehicles in military service. Commercial airliners use Jet A and Jet A-1, which is also kerosene-based.
UOP, the recognized leader in developing process technology for the refining and petrochemical industries, formed its Renewable Energy & Chemicals business unit in late 2006 to commercialize solutions for production of renewable biofuel energy.
This announcement follows the recent announcement that UOP has developed, along with European energy company Eni, a process to convert vegetable oils and waste into a high-cetane green diesel fuel with low emissions and high efficiency (pevious post). No details were released about this process, but I would expect to follow a similar approach to the green diesel process, using a catalyst, in the appropriate step (the Fluid Catalytic Crackers (FCC)?) in a refinery to convert vegetable oils to JP-8.
An ineresting item in this announcement is that they specifically mentioned algal oils as a feedstock. The military has a large program going on, for national security reasons, to develop alternatives to the petroleum fuels that it currently uses. Maybe this process, through government requirements, will create enough demand for algal oil that it will become a significant feedstock, rather than dependending on the oils from food grains.
Biofuel may be good for now but electric is much better. Nikola Tesla had an electric turbine in the early 1900's that was >95% efficient. It's design is found in many pumps today. With the emerging light weight high powered fast recharge batteries both range and charging are no longer a problem. In-flight charging could be done via charging cable from a fuel cell tanker. Stealth could be greatly enhanced without jet fuel noise! Whine of turbine would probably still be fairly loud.
Posted by: ElectRich | July 01, 2007 at 05:48 PM
In the distant future, batteries may have the energy density to take an Airbus over the atlantic, but even the most advanced batteries today aren't even close.
The highest energy batteries today that I know of use lithium-sulphur chemistry. more than 400 wh/kg has been achieved in real products and it's still improving.
That's good energy density for UAV's and perhaps even ultralights but nowhere close to commercial long distance aviation. It's impractical and expensive to recharge the batteries in-flight so many times.
Aviation is going to be stuck with chemical fuels for a long time to come. Not so bad, only a small part of liquid fuels demand comes from aviation. Jets can also be improved so that they're much less noisy.
And intracontinental travel could mostly be done by high speed trains, so there would be even less liquid fuel demand from aviation.
The automotive sector is where the biggest gains can be made, and batteries energy density is more than enough for a good SPHEV. Besides high cost, reliability (over several years) is the only thing left that I'm concerned about.
Posted by: Calamity | July 02, 2007 at 04:49 AM
Jet A energy density = 44 MJ/kg.
Li ion battery energy density = 1.4 MJ/kg.
And this Li ion energy density is the result of decades of R&D. ICE performance is still improving faster than battery performance. EVs will never surpass ICEVs burning either petrofuels or biofuels, on the ground or in the air.
Posted by: TJC in FL | July 03, 2007 at 01:09 PM
Yes that is correct. But:
1. SPHEV requires only a modest plug-in range, which means less energy storage.
2. Electric drivetrains are far more energy efficient than ICE drivetrains will ever get, which means even less energy storage is needed.
3. 100 kg more or less isn't going to be a problem for most cars, especially when the weight is positioned low and is evenly distributed over the car.
4. You can still have an ICE as a genset. Working @ peak efficiency all the time and with fewer losses in the drivetrain too.
Li-ion isn't the ultimate energy storage tech, in the future higher energy storage will be available. It may still be more interesting to use hydrocarbon fuels for commercial aviation though.
Posted by: Calamity | July 03, 2007 at 04:30 PM