Posted on 04/23/2014 7:08:44 AM PDT by thackney
Navy researchers say they have turned seawater into fuel that could power military vehicles for less than $6 per gallon.
The researchers announced this month that the seawater-based fuel successfully powered a remote-controlled model jet with a standard two-stroke internal combustion engine. Carbon dioxide and hydrogen gas extracted from Gulf of Mexico water were converted into liquid hydrocarbon fuel using gas-to-liquid technology. The renewable fuel mirrors its petroleum-based counterpart and could be used in standard military engines.
“The potential payoff is the ability to produce JP-5 fuel stock at sea, reducing the logistics tail on fuel delivery with no environmental burden and increasing the Navy’s energy security and independence,” said Naval Research Laboratory chemist Heather Willauer in a written statement. ”This is the first time technology of this nature has been demonstrated with the potential for transition from the laboratory to full-scale commercial implementation.”
The fuel would cost $3 to $6 per gallon and would be commercially viable within 10 years, with sufficient research funding, according to the Naval Research Laboratory.
The scientists now are working to scale up the technology to increase fuel output. The ability to power military ships and aircraft with seawater-based fuel would be revolutionary. In fiscal year 2011, the primary fuel supplier to the Navy delivered nearly 600 million gallons to power the vessels.
I heard that back in the 1920’s Standard Oil and General Motors bought the patent on that process and made it disappear.
LOL !!!
6 Dollars per gallon? Are these people on acid?
More details:
Scale Model WWII Craft Takes Flight With Fuel From the Sea Concept
http://www.nrl.navy.mil/media/news-releases/2014/scale-model-wwii-craft-takes-flight-with-fuel-from-the-sea-concept
Navy researchers at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), Materials Science and Technology Division, demonstrate proof-of-concept of novel NRL technologies developed for the recovery of carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen (H2) from seawater and conversion to a liquid hydrocarbon fuel.
Fueled by a liquid hydrocarbon—a component of NRL’s novel gas-to-liquid (GTL) process that uses CO2 and H2 as feedstock—the research team demonstrated sustained flight of a radio-controlled (RC) P-51 replica of the legendary Red Tail Squadron, powered by an off-the-shelf (OTS) and unmodified two-stroke internal combustion engine.
Using an innovative and proprietary NRL electrolytic cation exchange module (E-CEM), both dissolved and bound CO2 are removed from seawater at 92 percent efficiency by re-equilibrating carbonate and bicarbonate to CO2 and simultaneously producing H2. The gases are then converted to liquid hydrocarbons by a metal catalyst in a reactor system.
“In close collaboration with the Office of Naval Research P38 Naval Reserve program, NRL has developed a game changing technology for extracting, simultaneously, CO2 and H2 from seawater,” said Dr. Heather Willauer, NRL research chemist. “This is the first time technology of this nature has been demonstrated with the potential for transition, from the laboratory, to full-scale commercial implementation.”
CO2 in the air and in seawater is an abundant carbon resource, but the concentration in the ocean (100 milligrams per liter [mg/L]) is about 140 times greater than that in air, and 1/3 the concentration of CO2 from a stack gas (296 mg/L). Two to three percent of the CO2 in seawater is dissolved CO2 gas in the form of carbonic acid, one percent is carbonate, and the remaining 96 to 97 percent is bound in bicarbonate.
NRL has made significant advances in the development of a gas-to-liquids (GTL) synthesis process to convert CO2 and H2 from seawater to a fuel-like fraction of C9-C16 molecules. In the first patented step, an iron-based catalyst has been developed that can achieve CO2 conversion levels up to 60 percent and decrease unwanted methane production in favor of longer-chain unsaturated hydrocarbons (olefins). These value-added hydrocarbons from this process serve as building blocks for the production of industrial chemicals and designer fuels.
In the second step these olefins can be converted to compounds of a higher molecular using controlled polymerization. The resulting liquid contains hydrocarbon molecules in the carbon range, C9-C16, suitable for use a possible renewable replacement for petroleum based jet fuel.
The predicted cost of jet fuel using these technologies is in the range of $3-$6 per gallon, and with sufficient funding and partnerships, this approach could be commercially viable within the next seven to ten years. Pursuing remote land-based options would be the first step towards a future sea-based solution.
The minimum modular carbon capture and fuel synthesis unit is envisioned to be scaled-up by the addition individual E-CEM modules and reactor tubes to meet fuel demands.
The process efficiencies and the capability to simultaneously produce large quantities of H2, and process the seawater without the need for additional chemicals or pollutants, has made these technologies far superior to previously developed and tested membrane and ion exchange technologies for recovery of CO2 from seawater or air.
Perhaps it works so well in the Gulf due to all the oil spills that happen there.
If you really want to see what global warming is like, start releasing tons and tons of water vapor into the air — a byproduct of Hydrogen combustion. We’ll need a global dehumidifier.
Add in the logistical challenge of keeping ships at sea fueled as well as the cost of doing so, and it may make perfect sense.
$6 gallon if generated on the Nuclear Carrier at sea would be cheaper than delivering fuel refined in the US to the Indian Ocean, as an example.
It basically allows you to create a man-made oil well wherever water and power exists.
With enough energy on hand, any source of Hydrogen and Carbon can be turned into any hydrocarbon molecule.
No doubt this system requires a prodigious amount of electrical energy. The average, science illiterate person though, will take away from this announcement that the government has a limitless source of free energy.
...and it will have the added benefit of reducing the rate at which sea level is rising...
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/s
Cats and dogs sleeping together...Old Testament stuff!!
Key Point!
Not if it means they never have to go to the nearest (friendly) port to refuel...
That's in line with current aviation fuel prices at civilian airports.
Like a turbocharged ornithopter, it is.
I’ve got an ECM tuner module on a Subaru turbo vehicle, highest boost setting requires 110 octane, you aren’t kidding it’s expensive. Fun for a day of zooming around a track but I’d hate to pay that for run of the mill daily driving.
I guess they didn’t get the memo from Obama: hydrocarbons are evil.
Obama Executive Order #2,355,690:
All future aircraft carriers will be powered by windmills.
When the wind stops, a temporary truce will be negotiated. [per the Kyoto protocols.] When the prevailing winds allow, hostilities will resume, unless Russia and China object.
Or pull carriers off the line to conduct refueling ops.
The limiting factors in sustained carrier air ops no longer include fuel, but still include ordinance, spare parts and food for the crew. All of which can be lifted aboard via helicopter or COD aircraft rather than ceasing ops and pulling a tanker up along side.
This is a big game changer, if it pans out.
Sometimes, it’s a long trip to the nearest fill-up station.
I think they are paying almost $20 per gallon for plant derived jet fuel mandated by cwrongness
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