Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories in
Albuquerque, N.M. and Livermore, Calif., are part of a Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA) -funded team led by UOP, LLC, a
Honeywell company, looking at the production of military Jet Propellant
8 (JP-8) fuel based on the use of renewable biomass oil crop
feedstocks, including microalgae.
The goal of the 18-month effort, which is backed by a $6.7
million project award from DARPA, is to develop and commercialize a
process to produce the Jet Propellant 8 (JP-8) fuel used by U. S. and
NATO militaries.
Sandia researchers will collaborate closely with team members
at UOP, Cargill and Arizona State University to evaluate technical,
economic and environmental interdependencies, conduct comparative life
cycle analyses and tradeoff assessments and assess the scale-up
feasibility of high-volume bio-oil feedstock and JP-8 fuel production
from oil-rich microalgae and other suitable oil crops.
Sandia will specifically address issues and options for the
necessary expansion of reliable and cost-competitive oil crop
production and oil feedstock processing. This will include evaluation
of promising oil crops that will not directly compete with food and
feed markets, can avoid the use of higher-quality agricultural land,
and may also allow for reduced demand for energy, fresh water and other
inputs.
Several key issues and interdependencies for oil feedstock and
biofuel production scale-up include land use, water demand and
availability, soil and climate conditions, energy and other critical
inputs, crop yields and reliability, cost of production, competing
markets, operational logistics and infrastructure and the desire to
avoid or minimize potential adverse environmental impacts.
“National scale-up of oil-crop-based aviation fuel
production at the volumes, supply availability, reliability and
competitive costs desired is a complex and dynamic ‘system of
systems’ challenge,” says Ron Pate, Sandia
researcher. “We will leverage Sandia’s capabilities
and expertise in systems dynamics modeling, simulation and assessment
to help provide insight and decision support to the team and
DARPA.”
Sandia will also assess the technical and economic viability
of algal oil feedstock production systems and processes, which will
include close collaboration with Arizona State University. The goal of
this effort will be to provide an objective evaluation of the
performance, costs, and feasibility of scale-up of algal biomass and
oil feedstock production systems using selected alga strains and
approaches that may offer promising pathways toward reliable and
competitively priced production of algal oil suitable for conversion
into jet fuel. While algal oil is similar to other vegetable oils in
terms of fatty acid composition, the oil productivity of microalgae, on
an annual per-acre basis, could potentially provide 100 times greater
yield than soy and 10 times greater yield than oil palm.
“Achieving commercially viable algal-oil production
scale-up faces numerous challenges,” says Pate.
“But we hope to more clearly identify and assess
opportunities and paths for providing significant performance
improvements and cost reductions.”
Sandia, UOP, Honeywell Aerospace, Cargill, Southwest Research
Institute and ASU researchers will be working to help develop, evaluate
and commercialize the processes and biofeedstock and biofuel production
scale-up pathways needed to enable reliable, high-volume, competitively
priced jet fuel production based on vegetable and/or algae oil rather
than petroleum.
“The focus of our renewable energy efforts has been
to develop technologies that align with today’s standard
refinery practices, but allow a broader range of feedstock
options,” says Jennifer Holmgren, director of UOP’s
Renewable Energy and Chemicals business unit. “We are
confident that we have assembled a strong team of experts that will be
successful in proving the viability of biofeedstock technologies for
JP-8 and other jet fuels, while offering the U.S. military another
option for sustainable liquid fuels critical to their
programs.”
Fuel produced by the new process will have to meet stringent
military specifications and is expected to achieve 90 percent energy
efficiency for maximum conversion of feed to fuel to reduce waste and
production costs. UOP expects the technology will be viable for future
use in the production of fuel for commercial jets.
The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2008.