US Navy technology turns seawater into jet fuel

[ramakrishna]

Navy researchers at the US Naval Research Laboratory's (NRL) Materials Science and Technology Division have successfully conducted flight trials of a scale-model WWII craft powered by novel-liquid hydrocarbon fuel.

The trials used NRL technologies that were developed for converting carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen (H2) from seawater into liquid hydrocarbon fuel.

US Navy technology turns seawater into jet fuel - Naval Technology

 

[W.G.Ewald]

The fuel powered a two-cycle IC engine, not a jet.

 

[W.G.Ewald]

...here's the economic point to this, such a system is simply not going to be economic, not in general usage. Currently they say that a gallon of avgas will cost in the $4-$6 range and when it's possible to pump up oil in Saudi for $15 a barrel that price just doesn't work. Not for general usage it doesn't work that is. It's also worth pointing out that this process is an energy sink. When we drill for oil we get a net addition to the useful power available to us. This process reduces the amount of power available to us. We have to put more energy into the system than we get out of it.

Don't Get Too Excited But The US Navy Can Now Make Gasoline From Seawater - Forbes

 

[W.G.Ewald]

Fueling the Fleet, Navy Looks to the Seas - U.S. Naval Research Laboratory

Some knowledgeable comments at this link.

 

[W.G.Ewald]

"The idea of using CO2 as a carbon source is appealing," says Philip Jessop, a chemist at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

But to make a jet fuel that is properly "green", the energy-intensive electrolysis that produces the hydrogen will need to use a carbon-neutral energy source; and the complex multi-step process will always consume significantly more energy than the fuel it produces could yield. In addition, each step in the process is likely to add cost and problems.

"It's a lot more complicated than it at first looks," Jessop says.

How to turn seawater into jet fuel - tech - 18 August 2009 - New Scientist

When the shooting starts, "green" has to go. This is the peacetime Obama navy.

 

[ninja85]

Navy researchers at the US Naval Research Laboratory's (NRL) Materials Science and Technology Division have successfully conducted flight trials of a scale-model WWII craft powered by novel-liquid hydrocarbon fuel.

The trials used NRL technologies that were developed for converting carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen (H2) from seawater into liquid hydrocarbon fuel.

US Navy technology turns seawater into jet fuel - Naval Technology

then US don't need to depend on any oil imports from saudi or iraq for defence.

 

[W.G.Ewald]

then US don't need to depend on any oil imports from saudi or iraq for defence.

The value of such a system would be for a carrier task force where energy for producing jet fuel would be produced by the carrier's nuclear propulsion system.