Andrews AFB, MD – The United States Air Force Thunderbirds flight demonstration team will be flying on alternative fuel for the first time at the Joint Services Open House on May 20 and 21. Aircraft #5 and #6 will perform the team’s first performance using “green” biofuel, making the Thunderbirds the first Department of Defense aerial performance team to fly on the alternative fuel. The Friday show is for media and DoD personnel only. The JSOH is open to the public on May 21 and 22. Visit JSOH for more information about the Joint Services Open House. Media are invited to view the Thunderbirds arrival show and then conduct interviews the pilots and Mr. Terry Yonkers, the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Installations, Environment and Logistics on Monday, May 16th at Andrews Air Force Base at 1 p.m. The Thunderbirds will be flying on a Camelina-based Hydrotreated Renewable Jet (HRJ). The Air Force is testing and evaluating biomass fuels derived from three different feedstocks: Camelina (plant seed oil), beef tallow (animal fat) and various waste oils and greases. To date, the Air Force has tested and certified biofuel as a 50-percent blend with regular jet fuel in the A-10, F-15, C-17, and F-22 aircraft. Fleet-wide certification is on track for completion in 2013.

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Burner wrote:<groans>

...and testing is bad, how exactly?

Wiki: Aviation biofuel
Wired: Aviation Biofuels: More Hype Than Hope?
environment360: For Greening Aviation, Are Biofuels the Right Stuff?

Camelina and algae-based additives have real promise to perform well, but it's all a stupid publicity stunt. The worst part is, using a fuel like this requires more/different infrastructure, and will probably end up costing more. As for the environmental impact, it's like trying to plug the Hoover Dam with a cotton ball.

What I'm dying to see progress from is Joule Unlimited's pilot plant down in TX.

They've come up with a cyanobacteria that produces proper length hydrocarbon chains through photosynthesis (bacteria eats sunlight & CO2 and pisses out diesel or gasoline...not some hokey intermediate that needs to be processed at the cost of more energy to make a "biodiesel"...and if you can do that, the shorter alkanes should be easy too - methane, butane, propane).

Although, ideally, we'd be looking for an entirely alternate power source, rather than burning more hydrocarbons. Ideally.

Great, looking forward to next weekend.

Beaker wrote:Although, ideally, we'd be looking for an entirely alternate power source, rather than burning more hydrocarbons. Ideally.

I agree only insofar as "ideally" means technologies that are at best theoretical (such as driving around in a fusion powered car).

Barring that, the company I was talking about has essentially the perfect solution (it _can_ work with atmospheric carbon, just not as efficiently as if it's fed a concentrated source). It's essentially solar power, just using hydrocarbons as the storage medium instead of the environmentally horrible battery choices we have today. Maximum win.

The only "problem" with burning hydrocarbons is pumping carbon into the atmosphere. Eliminate that (by fixing the carbon into new fuel) and hydrocarbons become the best battery we have.