Accelergy Alliance – USAF CRADA On Advanced Synthetic Jet Fuels from Algae/Coal Conversion
Air Force Research Laboratory
Propulsion Directorate
Energy/Power/Thermal Division
Accelergy Contact: Dr. Rocco A Fiato
VP Business Development & Planning
Accelergy Corporation
18000 Groeschke Road
Houston, TX 77084
USAF Contact: Dr. James T Edwards
AFRL/RZPF
Wright Patterson AFB
Dayton Ohio 45433
The Accelergy Alliance is addressing the simultaneous challenges of increasing the supply of secure fuels, while controlling greenhouse gas emissions, which requires the global deployment of carbon efficient energy systems. One strategic option is to develop energy conversion technologies that enable CO2 to be used as a feedstock for the production of low carbon footprint fuels. This concept is being advanced by the National Academy of Science, the US Department of Energy, the RAND Corporation – USAF, among others. A potentially viable approach for this involves conversion of CO2 from industrial emission sources to algal biomass followed by its conversion to clean fuels and chemicals. Such a synthetic fuel manufacturing process system could use domestic resources to produce fuels that emit significantly fewer greenhouse gasses than current technology (lifecycle basis). Accelergy’s proposed project aims to conduct pilot-scale studies to demonstrate just such a technology platform for Integrated Carbon to Liquids (ICTL) conversion of CO2/algal biomass, configured to operate alone or with other carbon based feedstocks such as cellulosic biomass and/or coal.
Accelergy and its Alliance partners have developed high efficiency integrated process schemes for beneficial CO2 utilization via four major process steps: 1- CO2 Carbon Capture and Recycle (CC&R) to Algae via Montana State University algae strains produced with A2BE Carbon Capture Advanced Photobioreactor Technology; 2- Micro Catalytic Liquefaction (MCL) licensed from ExxonMobil Corporation; 3- Catalytic Hydrodeoxygenation and Isomerization (CHI) licensed from UND-EERC; and 4- Steam Hydro-Gasification (SHG) under development at UC Riverside and Viresco Energy LLC.
Our collaborative program with AFRL will confirm the unique high temperature stability and high energy density of our synthetic JP8 that is 100% derived from biomass/coal. We are planning to combine our coal derived fuels with a biomass derived fuels EERC recently prepared in response to a DARPA program - and believe the combination will more than satisfy USAF objectives re energy security, sourcing of high quality/performance JP8 from domestic resources, and overall environmental responsiveness vis GHG emissions. We also believe the unique molecular composition of our fuels (almost 100% cyclo-paraffinic with controlled levels of specific isoparaffins) may make them interesting candidates for UAV fuel applications where high volumetric energy density could be important, and for next generation fighter aircraft where high thermal stability is a necessary feature.