US Air Force Confident of Meeting 2011 Blended Fuel Target
by Jeffrey Decker (FlightGlobal) …Biomass can be gasified and converted to fuel through the Fischer-Tropsch process as well, but the USAF has focused on coal-to-liquids to confirm that chemically identical fuels perform alike no matter what the raw material is. Almost anything carbon-based can be squeezed, heated and nudged into a hydrocarbon and then into fuel.
A major question now is whether private industry will make capital investments during a recession to help the USAF meet another high-profile goal for synthetic paraffinic kerosene (SPK). “Real progress means being able to make large-scale, cost-effective purchases of alternative fuels,” says USAF undersecretary Erin Conaton. “We need help from industry leaders so that by our 2016 goal year, we can competitively acquire half of our domestic aviation fuel requirement via an alternative fuel blend.” This year the air force will spend $6.7 billion on aviation fuel, she says. The USAF accounts for more than half the consumption of oil by all US government agencies. READ MORE