Navy Looks to Biofuels in 2016

by Mark Matsunaga (U.S. Pacific Fleet Public Affairs/The Lemoore Navy News) Ships and aircraft in the next Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) Exercise could be running on biofuels, and they won't even need to know it, according to speakers at an Alternative Fuels Overview briefing for RIMPAC 2014 participants.
The briefing drew over 40 officers and officials from seven nations - Australia, Brunei, Chile, Colombia, Japan, Mexico and the United States.
Joelle Simonpietri, U.S. Pacific Command's operational manager for energy and contingency basing, spelled out the need to develop alternative fuels in order to reduce a major driver of conflict.
This is especially true in the Pacific, which has the world's largest energy demand and lowest fossil energy resources; where the "tyranny of distance" is most acute, and everything must travel long distances. She also noted that only a handful of the 36 nations in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region are petroleum exporters.
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Simonpietri said Department of Defense Alternative Fuel Policy requires that replacement fuels must be "drop-in" fuels and meet existing fuel specifications. The biofuels must utilize existing transportation and distribution infrastructure and require no modifications to weapons platforms. Moreover, these alternative fuels must be cost-competitive with petroleum fuel and have lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions that are no worse than conventional fuels while also complying with existing procurement, energy, health and safety laws and regulations.
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Rather than one group of ships, he (Chris Tindal, director for operational energy in the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Energy) said, the Navy plans for biofuels to comprise up to 50 percent of the fuel used by deploying ships and aircraft throughout the fleet in calendar year 2016. Procurement has already begun for advanced drop-in biofuels. Selection of platforms and locations for the 2016 effort will happen later.
However, biofuel use in the Navy will not end at the conclusion of 2016 after the sailing of the Great Green Fleet, as "it will mark the start of the Navy's 'New Normal,'" Tindal said.
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Tindal and Simonpietri encouraged the foreign members of the audience to facilitate government cooperation, and offered to share U.S. test and certification data for alternative fuels. They also encouraged the officers to consider future possibilities where their nation could both supply fuel to the U.S. Department of Defense and produce it for their own military and aviation use. READ MORE and MORE (Biomass Magazine)