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[Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee]

ICTURE: US Air Force to use synthetic fuel across fleet by 2011
By Jeffrey Decker

The US Air Force intends to certificate its entire aircraft fleet to run on synthetic jet-fuel blend by 2011, and began on 8 August when the Boeing B-52H became the first to be approved.

The eight-engined bomber finished testing earlier this year with fuel produced from natural gas using the Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) process.


The eight engine Boeing B-52H was the first to be approved to run on synthetic jet fuel blend

Each time the price of fuel goes up $10 a barrel, it costs the USAF $600 million, says air force secretary Michael Wynne. "It causes angst to know that we're faced with a commodity that some might use against us," he says, pointing to the potential of F-T to convert domestic coal and natural gas to jet fuel.

Shell Houston was recently awarded a contract to provide 1.1 million litres (290,000USgal) of the synthetic fuel, with 34,000 litres bound for NASA test centres. Interest is high in the F-T process, which uses heat, pressure and catalysts to convert carbon-based feedstock into fuel.

The next aircraft to be certificated for synthetic fuel will be the Boeing C-17. "This will be a bridge into the commercial arena," says Wynne, as the airlifter is powered by the same Pratt & Whitney PW2000s that power Boeing 757 airliners.

Afterburning engine tests on the Rockwell B-1 are scheduled for November, says assistant secretary Paul Bollinger. "The air force will be prepared to award contracts for competitively priced, domestically produced, synthetic fuel following certification of the fleet in early 2011," he says.

The USAF plans to use a 50/50 blend with kerosene in all aircraft by 2016, calling for 1.5 billion litres of synthetic fuel each year. "We are not searching for suppliers at this time as there are no domestic suppliers," says Bollinger.

A 10,000 barrel a day plant would require about a $1 billion investment, says Jack Holmes, chief executive of Syntroleum, the Oklahoma-based producer of the synthetic fuel used in the B-52 tests. "That's because of all the coal handling, the coal gasification, which is very expensive."

In July Syntroleum announced it had teamed with Tysons Foods to provide the USAF with 1,900 litres of jet fuel produced from chicken fat using a cheaper and greener method. Starting with animal fats eliminates the first stages of the process. "We can build a 5,000 barrel a day plant for $100 million and we think we can have it on line in less than two years," says Holmes.

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2007/08/13/216011/picture-us-air-force-to-use-synthetic-fuel-across-fleet-by-2011.html

[Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee]

USAF encouraged as B-52 synthetic fuel trials conclude
By Jeffrey Decker

Service impressed with results, but will have to look overseas for future test supplies

Synthetic fuel testing by the US Air Force has concluded, with encouraging results in cold temperatures for jet fuel made from natural gas using the Fischer Tropsch process. The tests in a Boeing B-52 bomber used a 50:50 blend of synthetic and conventional JP8 jet fuel, but synfuel for further tests will have to come from overseas as there is no active US production facility.

Following earlier flight tests, cold-weather ground tests were conducted at Minot AFB, North Dakota in temperatures ranging from -22e_SDgrC (-7.6�F) to -11.6�C, and included pneumatic and cartridge engine starts. "The aircraft started as expected, just like it was on JP8," says Bill Harrison, chief of the US Air Force Research Laboratory's fuels branch, with no fuel flow problems detected.

Fuel still in the tanks will be drained for materials testing or auxiliary power-unit tests. Afterburning-engine tests are planned once the USAF orders more fuel. "We are going to get into that, probably in fiscal year 2008, with some preliminary work later this year," Harrison says. The USAF plans to certificate its entire fleet for synthetic fuel by 2010.


� USAF
The cold-weather B-52 trials have reduced the risks associated with fleet-wide synthetic fuel introduction by 2010

The fuel for the B-52 trial was made by Syntroleum, which mothballed its Tulsa, Oklahoma facility after providing 379,000 litres (100,000USgal) at $5.3/litre. "We are hoping to pay a much lower price," says Harrison, noting that potential future suppliers already have commercial-scale operations.

The US Defense Energy Support Center will issue a solicitation soon, Harrison says, with possible suppliers including Chloron of Germany, a Shell plant in Malaysia that makes diesel from natural gas and Sasol of South Africa. Sasol already has a commercial synthetic jet-fuel operation and produces 100,000 barrels of fuel a day, says Renus Kelfkens, the company's US coal-to-liquids country manager. The synthetic fuel is mixed with jet fuel in a 30:70 blend, but is not exported.

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2007/03/06/212427/usaf-encouraged-as-b-52-synthetic-fuel-trials-conclude.html

[Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee]

DATE:08/08/07
SOURCE:Flight International
French alternate aviation fuels research to begin in December
By Rob Coppinger

A French alternative-fuels project involving laboratory-scale testing of blended fuels, second-generation biofuels and other candidates is to get under way by December.

Known as CALIN, the project involves French aerospace research agency ONERA, propulsion company Snecma and members of the country's Aerospace Valley group.

Launched by the Aerospace Valley group of businesses from the Midi-Pyrenees and Aquitaine areas of south-west France, CALIN will improve the understanding of the different fuels' kinetic properties, emissions and combustion characteristics to help computer modelling. There are no demonstration engines or flight trials involved.

"The next step after CALIN is the [European Union] project Alfa-bird," says Snecma research and technology vice-president Serge Eury.

Alfa-Bird (alternative fuels and biofuels for aircraft development) is a planned EU Seventh Framework research project to investigate the economic and industrial consequences of switching from today's kerosene-based jet fuels to biofuels and other alternatives.

CALIN is part of the Aerospace Valley's energy and propulsion activity, which in turn is one of nine areas of aerospace research and development the group has under way.

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2007/08/08/215962/french-alternate-aviation-fuels-research-to-begin-in.html

[keane]

Good. The USDoD is the single largest consumer of oil in the world.