Making Superfuels Affordable, via Biofuels: The JP-10 Story

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February 25, 2013

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by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Could a switch to biofuels make super-dense JP-10 military aviation fuels affordable? Could F18A Super Hornets add payload or extend range?

Currently reserved for tactical missiles because of cost, biofuels could provide a path to affordable JP-10 superfuels, if new research pans out.

…Something critics didn’t mention is that the military has been using $25 per gallon fuel all along — for certain types of advanced, high performance fuel used in limited quantities. Bet you didn’t hear that from Senator John McCain of Arizona.

You don’t hear much about JP-10. It costs so much to make by conventional means that its use is typically restricted to air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles.

…What makes JP-10 attractive? Specifically, it has 11 percent higher density than conventional JP-8 (Jet A) fuel – clocking in at 142,000 BTUs per gallon compared to 125,000 for jet fuel (gasoline, by the way, has 115,000 BTUs).

What makes it unattractive? Well consider the problem that Raytheon faced, when it saw JP-10 prices soar from $13.09 per gallon to $25 per gallon between 2006 and 2010.

Now, what military officials will assure you is that it costs so much because they’re not buying much – entirely true.

…The whole problem of JP-10 is that, irrespective of volume, it is going to cost one heck of a lot if made from petroleum because refining the molecule in question, exo-tetrahydrodicyclopentadiene, from crude oil is like processing diamonds out of dirt.

…Terpenes are hydrocarbons, and they can burn fiercely – making them excellent target molecules for fuel applications.

Now, plants make them already – but they just don’t make enough of them. That’s where the bioengineering comes in — and where a number of the PETRO projects come in.

…In the class of 2013 there are four projects nearing completion – completion is scheduled for late spring or summer. Three of them — well, they are attemping to make terpenes – specifically, in camelina, tobacco and arundo donax.

Ah, so there it is. Based on the PETRO projects and what we are seeing out of China Lake, low-cost terpenes may lead to low-cost JP-10. READ MORE and MORE (Renewable Energy World)

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