JP-5 from sea water

[Triton]

"Converting sea water to Navy jet fuel"

by Mike Hoffman on October 2, 2012
http://defensetech.org/2012/10/02/converting-sea-water-to-navy-jet-fuel/

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.

 

[mithril]

i hope this works out. the basic principles seem to be applicable to other hydrocarbon fuels, so if the Navy proves it can be done effectively, it might be applicable on a larger scale to replace the importation of oil for fuel. certainly it should get cheaper per gallon at larger scales of production.

 

[Hobbes]

If they can pull this off it'd be fantastic, but $3/gallon sounds awfully low to me. ISTR that when you synthesize fuel, you have to put in more energy than you can later extract from the fuel so this process would depend on having an abundant energy source (in case of the Navy, most likely a nuclear reactor).

A quick search finds http://e360.yale.edu/feature/geoengineering_carbon_dioxide_removal_technology_from_pollutant_to_asset/2498/ which talks about $250/ton for capturing CO2 from air. Then you'll have to extract hydrogen (electrolysys, perhaps? not cheap) and combine them (not free either).

 

[Triton]

Isn't this project more about offering an alternative to alongside connected replenishment (CONREP) of JP-5, rather than offering a cheaper alternative to petroleum-based JP-5.

 

[TomS]

Isn't this project more about offering an alternative to alongside connected replenishment (CONREP) of JP-5, rather than offering a cheaper alternative to petroleum-based JP-5.

Yes, absolutely. Anyone thinking this is an alternative for national-scale energy needs is fooling themselves. This might, maybe, be sensible for specialized use cases where the cost to transport conventional fuels greatly outweighs the actual cost of the fuel and you have access to a large and effectively unlimited non-fuel power supply. So either nuclear carrier battlegroups or Afghan-style occupations in places where the supply routes are threatened and there is already plentiful nuclear, hydro, wind, or solar power supplies (I can't think of any).

 

[riggerrob]

Isn't this project more about offering an alternative to alongside connected replenishment (CONREP) of JP-5, rather than offering a cheaper alternative to petroleum-based JP-5.

Yes, absolutely. Anyone thinking this is an alternative for national-scale energy needs is fooling themselves. This might, maybe, be sensible for specialized use cases where the cost to transport conventional fuels greatly outweighs the actual cost of the fuel and you have access to a large and effectively unlimited non-fuel power supply. So either nuclear carrier battlegroups or Afghan-style occupations in places where the supply routes are threatened and there is already plentiful nuclear, hydro, wind, or solar power supplies (I can't think of any).

One study revealed that a gallon of diesel fuel cost as much as $5,000 by the time it was shipped, trucked, flown, etc. to an isolated army post deep in the Afghan mountains.
Also consider that if Communist China and the US Navy come to blows in the South China Sea, the USN will be operating at the far end of a supply chain as long as the Pacific Ocean is wide. Reducing the cost of shipping fuel across the Pacific Ocean may make-or-break the USN supply chain.