Tim Edwards

1
DOD/AF Assured Fuels Initiative Update

• Tim Edwards
• Air Force Research Laboratory
• 30 Jul 2007

2
DOD/AF Assured Fuels Initiative
DOD Vision DoD/ATL intends to catalyze
commercial industry to produce clean fuels for
the military from secure domestic resources using
environmentally sensitive processes as a bridge
to the future. AF Vision "The Air Force is
committed to completing its testing and
certification of our aircraft fleet for
alternative fuels by 2011. Working with
industry, we can accomplish this goal. Once
accomplished, we look forward to buying
domestically produced synfuel at competitive
market prices from manufacturing facilities that
engage in effective carbon dioxide capture and
reuse. Secretary of the Air Force Michael W.
Wynne, July 9, 2007, Keynote Address at
AIAA/SAE/ASME Joint Propulsion Conf., Cincinnati,
OH
3
AF Leadership Strategic Message

• The Air Force has a three-step Energy Strategy
• Reduce Demand
• Increase energy efficiency and reduce our energy
  consumption
• Increase Supply
• Research, test and certify new domestic fuels
• Cultural Change
• We are creating a culture where all Airmen make
  energy a consideration in everything we do
• The Air Force is working our energy strategy in
  partnership with other government agencies and
  the private sector.

AIR FORCE ENERGY VISION MAKE ENERGY A
CONSIDERATION IN ALL WE DO
4
Air Force Energy Consumption
American 3.2 B United 2.3 B Delta 2.1
B Northwest 1.7 B Continental 1.3 B Southwest 1.3
B Fed Ex 1.1 B US Airways 0.9B UPS 0.6 B 2005
Usage Jet Fuel Intelligence May 2005
AF Energy Bill (Fuel) exceeds 10M per day Every
10/barrel increase drives up AF fuel costs 600M
per year
5
Alternative Fuel Program Highlights

• Near-term goal 50/50 F-T/JP-8 blend certified in
  all AF vehicles by 2010
• B-52 flight demo late 2006
• C-17 to follow
• Coordinating with Commercial Alternative Aviation
  Fuel Initiative (CAAFI)
• Developing fuel certification process
• Coal expected to be first resource utilized
• Biomass has significant CO2 footprint reduction
  potential
• Desire is for 50 of consumption to come from
  alternative fuels by 2016
• Defense Energy Support Center plan for 200M gal
  buy ASAP

6
Could Coal Based Fuels be Greener than
Petroleum?
Courtesy of R. H. Williams, Princeton University,
Princeton, NJ
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Making Coal to Liquids Greener

• Joint Study with DOE/Rand/Noblis
• Objectives
• Develop process pathway to study co-conversion of
  coal and bio-mass combined with sequestration as
  a way to reduce CO2 emissions
• Access technical and economic feasibility
• Formulate conclusions and recommendations
• Selections of bio-mass
• Corn stover
• Switch grass
• Woody bio-mass
• Mixed feed
• Ref. location Future Gen Site in an
  Agricultural State

8
DARPA Bio-fuels Program

• Three contract awards
• General Electric (GE)
• Universal Oil Products
• University of North Dakotas EERC
• AFRL / PRTG
• Analyze fuel samples
• Key technical challenges for fuel production
• High temperature stability
• Low temperature properties
• Boiling range distribution and combination
• Trace materials

Promising Technologies to Produce Bio Jet Fuels
9
Synthetic Jet Fuels by Fischer-Tropsch
Syntroleum Low T F-T
Sasol High T F-T
Natural Gas
Coal
CO H2
CO H2
Low T F-T, Co catalyst
High T F-T, Fe catalyst
F-T wax
C1-C4 liquids
Iso-paraffinic kerosene
Iso-paraffinic kerosene
aka S-8, Flown on B-52 in late 2006 in 50
blend with JP-8 mostly singly-branched
isoparaffins, cetane number in high 60s
Supplied to commercial a/c at Johannesburg at
lt50 blend with Jet A-1 since 1999 mostly highly
branched isoparaffins, cetane number low 40s (?)
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Composition

• Nothing in Syntroleum and Sasol IPK that is not
  in JP-8
• 50/50 FT/JP-8 blend meets JP-8 spec
• Gas Chromatograph shows similar carbon
  distribution

C11
C12
C10
C13
C14
JP-8 FT
C9
Concentration
C15
C8
C16
C17
C7
C18
C19
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Time--gt
11
Carbon Distribution
Sasol High T F-T
Syntroleum Low T F-T
9
11
13
15
12
Results Typical Jet Fuels
The technique also measures acenaphthenes,
acenaphthylenes, tricyclic aromatics, and
indenes, but these were below detection limits in
all cases.
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Overall Jet Fuel Composition
Jet fuel 20 n-paraffins, 40 iso-paraffins,
20 naphthenes (cycloparaffins), 20 aromatics
14
Specialty Fuels

• RP-1 (Rocket Kerosene) enhanced cycloparaffins
  (naphthenes)
• Fischer-Tropsch kerosene entirely paraffinic

15
Fit-for-Purpose Properties
Density
F-T
Dielectric Constant
blend
16
Commercial Process
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Summary

• Air Force alternative fuel program has high-level
  backing and momentum
• Near-term goal certification of all AF systems
  on 50/50 JP-8/F-T blend by early 2011.
• Key issue consistency of F-T jet fuel between
  manufacturers and feedstocks
• Syntroleum S-8 lots of data
• Sasol significant data
• Shell 290,000 gallons inbound (late Aug arrival)
• Others?
• NMR for branching?
• How to incorporate into specification?