Algae-Based Jet Fuel: The Renewable Alternative to the Air Force's Focus On Coal-To-Liquid Synthetic Fuel

摘要

In his 2006 State of the Union Address, President George W. Bush established a national goal to replace 75 percent of U.S. oil imports by the year 2025. As the single largest consumer of energy within the Department of Defense, the USAF embraced the President's goal and began to reduce dependence on foreign oil through a strategy of energy conservation and the development of oil alternatives. The Air Force established a goal to acquire 50 percent of its domestic aviation fuel requirement by the year 2016 via domestically-sourced alternative fuel blend. To date, this initiative's focus has revolved around establishing a domestic coal-to-liquid (CTL) fuel industry with enough capacity to meet Air Force needs. However, technical, environmental and political realities have changed such that the Air Force should consider changing its focus on CTL jet fuel. This paper examined current realities to determine whether the Air Force should abandon initiatives that encourage a domestic CTL fuel industry and instead concentrate research, development and incentives toward acquiring renewable jet fuel derived from algae in order to stay on track toward its 2016 goal. Renewable fuels produced from algae are an attractive solution to the Air Force's alternative aviation fuel goal. The results showed that neither CTL fuel nor algae-based jet fuel are likely to be commercially viable in time to meet the Air Force's 2016 goal. However, a recent shift in national energy policy requires the Air Force to change its focus to algae-based jet fuel in order to align the initiative with national policy and posture for future success.