ENER Converting sea water to Navy jet fuel

Border guard

Inactive
Hope it works! - BG

http://defensetech.org/2012/10/02/converting-sea-water-to-navy-jet-fuel/
Converting sea water to Navy jet fuel

by Mike Hoffman on October 2, 2012

Navy scientists and researchers say they are close to a breakthrough toward turning seawater into jet fuel.
The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory is working to extract the carbon dioxide and produce hydrogen gas from the seawater. The key is then converting the carbon dioxide and hydrogen into hydrocarbons that can then be used to develop JP-5 fuel stock.
JP-5 is what fuels Navy jet fighters and results in multiple fuel transfers to aircraft carriers to maintain their onboard fuel stock. Producing that fuel from the abundant sea water would save the Navy from executing those sometimes risky transfers.
“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 Heather Willauer, a research chemist with NRL.
Navy officials estimate the process used to convert the seawater to fuel would cost the Navy between $3 and $6 per gallon.
Of course, this supposed breakthrough comes as the Republicans in Congress have fought against the efforts by the Navy to develop alternative fuels. Republicans claim the Navy can’t afford to attempt to create fuel out of seawater or cooking oil when the defense budget is getting slashed.
Navy and Marine Corps leaders have said they can’t afford not to considering the advances the Marine Corps has made in operational energy in Afghanistan.





Read more: http://defensetech.org/2012/10/02/converting-sea-water-to-navy-jet-fuel/#ixzz28EafCnEj
Defense.org
 

night driver

ESFP adrift in INTJ sea
I'm visualizing a piece of aparatus to do this and it keeps getting bigger the more I look at the process....

We'll have to expand our carriers....
 

robb1313

Contributing Member
And at a cost of about $10,000.00/gal (guess) it will be at the top of someones list of great "Green" initiatives.

Our tax $$$ at work.
 

Housecarl

On TB every waking moment
Look at it this way, if you can make JP-5 in theater, that's one less thing to have the fleet train haul all over the place to service the carrier and its air wing so other materials could be carried. I'm wondering how much of a load this would put on the nuclear power plants of a carrier and how that would effect its service life. Also if they can do that could they make bunker fuel for the escorts as well?

The other question is along the lines of Night Driver's question.
 

TerryK

TB Fanatic
I don't quite believe this article.
Converting water back into hydrogen and oxygen takes a tremendous investment of energy. To take CO2, another very stable compound and reverse that reaction takes more energy. To take the products of those two reactions and produce a liquid hydrocarbon fuel would be extreamly complicated and energy intensive.
I'd like to know where they got their $3 per gallon figure.
If this was even close to reality, this process would be used on shore right now.
It's not.

Is it possible to do? I am sure it is. Given enough energy and equipment you can rearrange atoms from any compound into another compound. The question that wasn't even addressed in the article is how to do it and how big and how expensive is the process.
 

Housecarl

On TB every waking moment
I don't quite believe this article.
Converting water back into hydrogen and oxygen takes a tremendous investment of energy. To take CO2, another very stable compound and reverse that reaction takes more energy. To take the products of those two reactions and produce a liquid hydrocarbon fuel would be extreamly complicated and energy intensive.
I'd like to know where they got their $3 per gallon figure.
If this was even close to reality, this process would be used on shore right now.
It's not.

Is it possible to do? I am sure it is. Given enough energy and equipment you can rearrange atoms from any compound into another compound. The question that wasn't even addressed in the article is how to do it and how big and how expensive is the process.

Good points.
 

Exodia

The Forbidden One
Perhaps they should just focus on turning the seawater to gold, then they can buy all the fuel they want. Sarcasm off.
 

NateUSA

Inactive
I don't quite believe this article.
Converting water back into hydrogen and oxygen takes a tremendous investment of energy. To take CO2, another very stable compound and reverse that reaction takes more energy. To take the products of those two reactions and produce a liquid hydrocarbon fuel would be extreamly complicated and energy intensive.
I'd like to know where they got their $3 per gallon figure.
If this was even close to reality, this process would be used on shore right now.
It's not.

Is it possible to do? I am sure it is. Given enough energy and equipment you can rearrange atoms from any compound into another compound. The question that wasn't even addressed in the article is how to do it and how big and how expensive is the process.

It looks like they plan on taking hydrocardon out of the algea and other organisms and make bio-fuel. Then through a second process called transesterification turn the bio-diesel into the JP-5. Maybe the chemist minds here could take alook at this report. It is in .PDF

Google quickview.
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&...akWYEF&sig=AHIEtbRggEstFe7auaxtj1fYRvxXzpmTWA

Military report.
http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a555597.pdf
 

mcchrystal

Inactive
I'm visualizing a piece of aparatus to do this and it keeps getting bigger the more I look at the process....

We'll have to expand our carriers....

My best bet is...wingtip tanks big enough to carry compressed hydrogen gas would be bigger than the planes themselves.

I smell another porky boondoggle....
 

night driver

ESFP adrift in INTJ sea
It looks like they plan on taking hydrocardon out of the algea and other organisms and make bio-fuel. Then through a second process called transesterification turn the bio-diesel into the JP-5. Maybe the chemist minds here could take alook at this report. It is in .PDF

Google quickview.
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&...akWYEF&sig=AHIEtbRggEstFe7auaxtj1fYRvxXzpmTWA

Military report.
http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a555597.pdf

NEITHER f those papers has a dang thing to do with turning sea water into fuel.

They are the results of a single study that looks at the corrosion of tanks in seawater when transporting fuels...and the corosion of the fuel itself, I think. NUTHIN aout makin fuel from sea water....

And transesterification is a fairly comples process that, if you wanted to do in your kitchen your kitchen best be 5 stories tall with a LOT of floor area...
 

HeyU

Senior Member
perhaps the trials were done in the gulf of Mexico making the system look more feasible than it actually is ;)
 
Top