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Synthetic fuel tested on fighter jet engines

Air Force engineers have started testing synthetic fuel on fighter jet engines, the latest effort in a movement to fly all of the service’s aircraft on the coal-based fuel.

Working from an Arnold Air Force Base lab in Tennessee, scientists are evaluating how a J-1 simulated altitude jet engine test cell handles the fuel.

This engine is described as the “power plant” for F-15 and F-16 fighter jets.

By 2016, the Air Force wants synthetic fuel, a more renewable coal-derived mixture, to account for half of the fuel burned by its aircraft. The service plans to kick-start production of this fuel by pushing industry to open a “coal-to-liquid” fuel plant outside Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont.

The Air Force has already certified the synthetic fuel on B-52 bombers and C-17 transport jets.

Other renewable energy projects in the works include developing a small nuclear-powered energy source — about one-tenth the size of a traditional nuclear reactor — that could power one base, and heavily researching “bio-fuels,” which contain energy derived from carbon sources such as plant life.

On the heels of commemorating the continent’s largest solar “photo-voltaic” power plant at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. — which covers 140 acres and will provide 25 percent of the base’s electricity — the Air Force will also request proposals for similar plants at Luke Air Force Base, Ariz., Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., and Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.