Air Force seeks jets powered by liquefied coal

[seafan]

Air Force seeks jets powered by liquefied coal

By Dave Montgomery | McClatchy Newspapers
March 30, 2008

WASHINGTON — Squeezed by the soaring cost of oil-based jet fuel, the Air Force is converting its gas-guzzling fleet of aircraft to synthetic fuels and encouraging the creation of a liquefied coal industry that could tap the nation's vast coal reserves.
This could mean a lucrative new market for coal-producing states such as Wyoming, Kentucky, Montana, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Texas and West Virginia. But advocates of liquefied coal face a counterattack from environmentalists in the debate over global warming and must prove that they can produce an ecologically friendly product with a low carbon footprint.

Air Force officials have been testing synthetic fuels based on coal or natural gas. They plan to certify the fleet of nearly 6,000 aircraft to fly on a 50-50 blend of synthetic fuel and traditional petroleum-based jet fuel by 2011.
Assistant Air Force Secretary Bill Anderson said the search for affordable, cleaner-burning alternative fuels was driven by economic and national security concerns. The Air Force wants to comply with President Bush's mandate to end America's dependence on foreign oil while escaping soaring fuel prices.

For the Air Force, which consumes more than half of all the fuel that the U.S. government uses, the cost of fueling fighters and transports is stratospheric. Every $10 increase in the price of a barrel of oil costs the Air Force another $600 million, Anderson said.

.....

Despite its availability, however, coal seldom has been seriously considered as an alternative energy source because converting it to liquid is so expensive. However, liquid coal is getting a fresh look as crude oil prices soar past $100 a barrel.
While coal-to-liquid advocates say that the conversion process will result in an ecologically clean product, many environmental groups and their supporters in Congress think that expanding the use of coal will worsen carbon emissions and global warming.

"I think across the board there is going to be opposition from the environmental movement," said John C. Topping, the president of the Climate Institute in Washington. "I'd say it's going to be almost universal because of the climate concerns."

The Air Force tentatively plans to lease underused property at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana for the construction of a coal-to-liquid fuel plant. By partnering with private enterprise, Air Force officials hope to foster the development of subsequent plants, to create a full-fledged coal-to-liquid industry that could supply military and commercial aviation.

.....

Raping our Earth to fuel Bush's Perpetual War Machines.

[Lance_Boyle]

1. Maybe the remaining 3rd Reich holdovers in the Bush Admin.

can help - Hitler's war machine ran in large part on liquid coal fuel.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/04/20/news/economy/coal_liquid/index.htm

[Kolesar]

2. yeah, how did the "thousand year empire" work out?

:sarcasm:

[Lance_Boyle]

3. Germany's still got metric ass-tons of coal, so

obviously it didn't work out as intended. ;-)

[ThomWV]

4. Its already been tried by DOE

I used to work at a DOE site where they were experimenting with a coal-enhanced jet fuel. They did a lot of other stuff like that too. A friend of mine ran a project for years in which he was running a diesel engine on coal (not liquid) and of course they added it to everything that burned - even a project that I vaguely recall in which they tried to get NASA to enhance rocket fuel with coal. That one never went anywhere (pun intended). Anyway the place was, at that time, called the Morgantown Energy Technology Center and was later renamed the National Energy Technology Laboratory; part of DOE's National Laboratory system. Two facilities, one in Morgantown, West Virginia and the other in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is where the Department of Energy's "Clean Coal" program was, is, and will be run from as well.

http://www.netl.doe.gov/

[HereSince1628]

5. South Africa did coal to liquid during sanctions...

Seems nations that are on everyone else's hate list do this.

So, although it will only increase carbon in the atmoshpere, I suppose it's time for the US to invest in the infrastructure for it.

[arbusto_baboso]

6. What's next? Wood-burning bombers? Coal bunkers in transports?

"Airman, shovel faster! We need to break the sound barrier!"

WTF?!?!?!?!