INTERVIEW: U.S. Air Force Goal is to use F-T Fuel Blend for 50% of U.S. Needs by 2016
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The U.S. Air Force aims to use Fischer-Tropsch (FT) blended fuels to fill 50% of its jet fuel needs in the U.S. by 2016, William "Bill" Anderson, Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Air Force in charge of installations, environment and logistics told Gasification News during an exclusive interview at the Pentagon.
"Our goal, and it is a very aggressive goal, is to acquire 50% of our domestic fuel needs [from FT-blended fuels]. A lot of our aircraft are in Europe and Asia and downrange in Iraq and Afghanistan, but 50% of our domestic fuel demand, which is about 1.6 billion gallons of the 2.6 billion gallons that we purchase annually, 50% of that (would come) from a domestically produced synthetic fuel blend," he said.
Anderson wants to make sure that the U.S. supplies all of the FT fuel the Air Force buys, and says that from what he has heard, there should be plenty of commercial FT fuel providers in the U.S. by 2016 to be able to fulfill those needs.
"We need to have sources domestically so that we can do the job the American people pay us to do and that is to defend this nation, defend freedom. That is a lot easier to do when we have domestically produced and derived energy sources," the former General Electric senior counsel said.
"If their (synthetic fuels producers’) plans fall into place as they expect, there should be domestic sources available for us. Then again, if this thing really takes hold, let's say our tests are successful and the commercial airline industry and big over-the-road truckers think this is a great idea, demand could easily outstrip the supply."
The Air Force has been sharing its FT fuel testing data with other departments in the government, such as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), as well as with commercial airlines.
"The partnership between FAA, the Department of Energy (DOE) and Air Force has been terrific from what I can see so far. A lot of information is being shared back and forth. We are kind of segregating who's doing what, so we can move as fast as we possibly can," Anderson said.
He said the FAA suggested that commercial certification of FT fuels can run approximately at the same time as Air Force certification, but added that airlines may be able to certify their fleets faster because they have fewer engine types. Additionally, coal-to-liquids (CTL) 50-50 blends with petroleum jet fuel are already used in commercial jet engines for a number of years in South Africa.
"We've got the after-burner engines, fighter aircraft and heavy aircraft. They (commercial airlines) may be able to certify quicker, which would be terrific for everybody," he said.
Air Force Testing/Certification Schedule
The Air Force is already in the process of preparing its own FT jet fuel specifications. Anderson says the specs will be based on performance and not feedstock, and says that a biomass or waste/residue feedstock would be fine as long as the FT fuel meets the specs.
Testing on the B-52 was completed last year with gas-to-liquids fuel from Syntroleum's pilot plant in Oklahoma. A tender for 208,000 gallons of FT jet fuel for testing this year is due to be awarded in May or June and it very well could go to a supplier outside of the U.S. as there are no domestic commercial plants yet, Anderson said.
The rest of the schedule the Air Force has put together for certification of FT fuels is as follows:
Mid-2007 Begin testing FT fuels in after-burner engines
2008Continue testing on C17
2010 Certify entire fleet
2011 Start looking for suppliers of FT fuels in earnest
2016 Use 50% FT blended fuel domestically
While testing the aviation fuel, the Air Force will also be testing the tankage, pipes, pumps and fuel hydrants to make sure that the FT fuel would not detrimentally affect fuel delivery systems.
"Can you have a tank that has pure JP8 [the military equivalent of grade A-1 commercial jet fuel] in it one day and then fill it up with a synfuel blend the next day? The ground logistics testing has to occur as well. It's already begun. We are doing all of this in parallel to move quickly. We are not going to stop. As far as being able to go into an airport and being able to say 'filler up' [with FT jet fuel] by the end of 2010, we can do that with confidence," Anderson said.
Environmental Stewardship
But not just any supplier who meets the specs would be able to sell to the Air Force due to environmental concerns. "[The environment] is not our lead responsibility, but we do take environmental stewardship very seriously and it will be a requirement as we move forward."
The FT jet fuel spec is to stipulate that the fuel's production facility must observe appropriate environmental practices such as CO2 sequestration.
"Our hope is that the industry moves from just simply capturing and pushing CO2 into the ground, but going from capture to an appropriate re-use of the carbon dioxide in a commercially viable way."
Additionally, the Air Force is also considering FT fuels made from things other than coal.
"We believe there is some opportunity to do a mixed feedstock. And if you do a mixed feedstock, there is the opportunity to greatly reduce the carbon footprint of this fuel, all the way to potentially going carbon neutral on this type of technology. That would be a long way off, but people are already thinking about that.”
Contracts and Prices
Anderson said that while the Air Force has no problem with long term contracts, it’s currently prohibited by law from signing on for more than five years. However, there are proposals on Capital Hill to extend that limit.
Regarding the price of FT fuel, Anderson expects that it would be priced around the same level as traditional jet fuel.
"Based on what we've heard from industry, this [FT jet fuel] should be priced equivalent to petroleum [jet fuel]. Depending upon where we see the market going, this should be a competitively priced product as we get into commercial scale production. We get these little pilot plants and it's very expensive to produce it. But on a commercial scale it seems like it should be price competitive."
Other Alternative Energy Options
Earlier this year, the Air Force opened a hydrogen fuel station at Hickam AFB in Hawaii for its ground vehicles and is also looking closely at E-85 and biodiesel fuel options.
The Air Force is also considering and building electrical facilities using renewable sources such as wind and solar.
In April, Anderson said he attended the ground-breaking of what is to be North America's largest array of solar panels at Nellis AFB in Nevada.
"We are working a number of different options because as I said earlier, we can't afford to put our eggs in one basket. We've got to have a suite of opportunities. And some of them will be niche opportunities and some will be much broader, but we believe we need a broad range of options to deal not only with the AF, but also with America's energy needs going into this century."
– Suzanne McElligott
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