Flying greener with biomass-derived blend - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

Flying greener with biomass-derived blend

The Air Force now knows it really can fly green into the wild blue yonder.

For the first time, on March 25, the federal government’s biggest fuel consumer powered one of its airplanes with only a biomass-derived blend — half regular JP-8 jet fuel and half a fuel made from a nonfood flowering plant in the same family as mustard, cabbage and broccoli.

The A-10 Thunderbolt, piloted by Maj. Chris Seager, crossed the skies over Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., for almost 90 minutes, demonstrating just how far in four years the service has come in developing alternative energy sources for its entire fleet.

While in the air, Seager tested the plane’s acceleration and climb, its throttle movements and the response of its twin engines.

“We were looking very closely [and] from my seat, I saw the same parameters and responses we see from JP-8,” said Seager, an A-10 test pilot assigned to the 40th Flight Test Squadron at Eglin. “I didn’t see anything different [in performance].”

The head of the Air Force office that oversees fuel testing described the in-air test as hard proof that alternative fuels can power jet engines.

“I think this flight demonstrates this is indeed a feasible objective,” said Jeff Braun, director of the Air Force alternative fuels certification office at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. “The data generated from this flight will support additional test efforts, which we are currently planning for this year.”

In the coming months, the alternative fuel will be tested in the F-15 Eagle, C-17 Globemaster and F-22 Raptor, he said.

“Our plan is to certify the entire Air Force fleet to use these blended fuels by the 2012 timeframe,” Braun said. “Based on the result we’ve seen today, things look positive.”

Though more testing is being conducted to determine the full benefits of alternative fuels, data have shown that biomass-derived fuels have lower emissions.

The Air Force 2010 Energy Plan calls for 50 percent of the service’s aviation fuel to be an alternative fuel blend by 2016. Every year, the service uses about 2.4 billion gallons of JP-8.

The price of JP-8 currently averages about $3.50 a gallon. The alternative fuel, made from oil from the camelina plant, is much more expensive — $65 a gallon — because it is produced only in small quantities for research and development, Braun said. The producer is Universal Oil Products.

Braun expects the price for biomass-derived fuels to drop as demand for the fuels increases.

Besides the fuel made from the camelina plant, the Air Force is interested in using other biomass-derived fuels.

“Our objective is to certify this family of fuels from an agnostic standpoint, where any plant oil or any animal fat can be used to generate a fuel,” Braun said. “As long as the fuel meets our specification requirements, we will consider that acceptable fuel.”

Those specifications include ensuring the biomass used in the fuel does not come from a food source.

“We don’t want to take resources or land or anything away from producing food,” Braun said. “We want to maintain an environmentally friendly approach to this, to include not diverting resources from the production of food for the production of fuel.”

Braun said the progress being made excites him.

“It’s neat being able to go home at night and feel like you’re making a difference,” he said. “It’s very interesting and there’s even more interesting stuff on the horizon we haven’t even looked at.”