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ALGAE TO SOLVE THE PENTAGON'S JET FUEL PROBLEM
By Suzanne Goldenberg
The Guardian
February 13, 2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/13/algae-solve-pentagon-fuel-problem
The brains trust of the Pentagon says it is just months away
from producing a jet fuel from algae for the same cost as its
fossil-fuel equivalent.
The claim, which comes from the Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency (Darpa) that helped to develop the internet
and satellite navigation systems, has taken industry insiders
by surprise. A cheap, low-carbon fuel would not only help the
US military, the nation's single largest consumer of energy,
to wean itself off its oil addiction, but would also hold the
promise of low-carbon driving and flying for all.
Darpa's research projects have already extracted oil from
algal ponds at a cost of $2 per gallon. It is now on track to
begin large-scale refining of that oil into jet fuel, at a
cost of less than $3 a gallon, according to Barbara
McQuiston, special assistant for energy at Darpa. That could
turn a promising technology into a market-ready one.
Researchers have cracked the problem of turning pond scum and
seaweed into fuel, but finding a cost-effective method of
mass production could be a game-changer. "Everyone is well
aware that a lot of things were started in the military,"
McQuiston said.
The work is part of a broader Pentagon effort to reduce the
military's thirst for oil, which runs at between 60 and 75
million barrels of oil a year. Much of that is used to keep
the US Air Force in flight. Commercial airlines – such as
Continental and Virgin Atlantic – have also been looking at
the viability of an algae-based jet fuel, as has the Chinese
government.
"Darpa has achieved the base goal to date," she said. "Oil
from algae is projected at $2 per gallon, headed towards $1
per gallon."
McQuiston said a larger-scale refining operation, producing
50 million gallons a year, would come on line in 2011 and she
was hopeful the costs would drop still further – ensuring
that the algae-based fuel would be competitive with fossil
fuels. She said the projects, run by private firms SAIC and
General Atomics, expected to yield 1,000 gallons of oil per
acre from the algal farm.
McQuiston's projections took several industry insiders by
surprise. "It's a little farther out in time," said Mary
Rosenthal, director of the Algal Biomass Association. "I am
not saying it is going to happen in the next three months,
but it could happen in the next two years."
But the possibilities have set off a scramble to discover the
cheapest way of mass-producing an algae-based fuel. Even
Exxon – which once notoriously dismissed biofuels as
moonshine – invested $600m in research last July.
Unlike corn-based ethanol, algal farms do not threaten food
supplies. Some strains are being grown on household waste and
in brackish water. Algae draw carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere when growing; when the derived fuel is burned, the
same CO2 is released, making the fuel theoretically
zero-carbon, although processing and transporting the fuel
requires some energy.
The industry received a further boost earlier this month,
when the Environmental Protection Agency declared that
algae-based diesel reduced greenhouse gas emissions by more
than 50% compared with conventional diesel. The Obama
administration had earlier awarded $80m in research grants to
a new generation of algae and biomass fuels.
For Darpa, the support for algae is part of a broader mission
for the US military to obtain half of its fuel from renewable
energy sources by 2016. That time line meant that the
Pentagon needed to develop technologies to make its hardware
"fuel agnostic", capable that is of running on any energy
source including methane and propane.
The US Air Force wants its entire fleet of jet fighters and
transport aircraft to test-fly a 50-50 blend of
petroleum-based fuel and other sources – including algae – by
next year.
The switch is partly driven by cost, but military commanders
in Afghanistan and Iraq are also anxious to create a lighter,
more fuel-efficient force that is less dependent on supply
convoys, which are vulnerable to attack from insurgents. Give
the military the capability of creating jet fuel in the
field, and you would eliminate that danger, McQuiston said.
"In Afghanistan, if you could be able to create jet fuel from
indigenous sources and rely on that, you'd not only be able
to source energy for the military, but you'd also be able to
leave an infrastructure that would be more sustainable."
McQuiston said the agency was also looking at how to make
dramatic improvements in the photo-voltaic cells that collect
solar energy. She said making PV 50% more efficient would
create a future when even the smallest devices, such as
mobile phones, would be powered by their own solar cells.
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