How they accidentally discovered a 100 percent petroleum replacement

Recently Applied Research Associates, in Panama City, Florida was working on a process to create sterile water in remote areas, when they discovered on a process to create the first 100% petroleum replacement biofuel. Known as Redijet, it looks, and acts exactly like petroleum, with lower emissions. When flown on an EA-18 Growler, the aircraft performed exactly like regular petroleum based fuel. Normal materials such as kitchen grease, or grease from wastewater treatment plants can be used as a base for the process. The Navy is trying to change to at least half their equipment using biofuels by 2020.

Powering fighters is not easy and it doesn’t come with a low price tag. Fuel costs the F-16 runs over $20,000 per flight hour, while 5th-Generation fighters such as the F-22 reach $68,000. Lockheed-Martin is attempting to sway prospective buyers claiming the F-35 is fuel efficient at a staggering $42,000 per hour. The US Navy announced that one their EA-18G Growlers took military fuel a step forward, it’s powered by kitchen grease.

A company in Panama City, Florida accidentally created a new biofuel that acts the same way as petroleum oil. The miracle fuel is known as Redijet has been selected by the United States Navy as a possible replacement for their jet fuel.

worldwarwings.com...

a reply to: Zaphod58

How much kitchen grease would it take to make enough fuel to fly a Growler for an hour?

That's fantastic news, and the fact it was discovered by accident is amazing.

Bio fuels are the way forward and if it can bring down the cost of fuelling these fighters, well that will keep the Treasury Department happy.

originally posted by: butcherguy
a reply to: Zaphod58

How much kitchen grease would it take to make enough fuel to fly a Growler for an hour?

I would imagine the U.S produces enough kitchen grease to keep the USAAF, Navy and Army going for a fair few hours.

i wonder if they could use help oil to make that fuel.

just plant it everywhere and convert.

a reply to: butcherguy

They haven't released much about the process yet, but there's plenty of materials that can be used to create enough fuel to power the entire Navy. They can use almost any type of grease, or several other materials.

That is excellent to read. I've been hoping to see more progress with biofuels and this is just the thing to give a little more hope. The world pretty much runs on the transportation of people and things from point A to point B so this kind of breakthrough is crucial.

Let's just hope that when the FAA/EPA outlaws 100LL for internal combustion general aviation aircraft, we'll be running on something much better. IIRC, 100LL is the only leaded gas allowed by the EPA.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: butcherguy

They haven't released much about the process yet, but there's plenty of materials that can be used to create enough fuel to power the entire Navy. They can use almost any type of grease, or several other materials.

I am curious. It would be nice to get some numbers. If we find out that it takes a block of kichen grease the size of a house to make enough fuel to fly an hour, it would make this idea of flying all the Navy planes on it seem silly.

a reply to: Zaphod58

have they said if the new bio fuel leaves the same residue that bio diesel leaves behind in automotive use?
if it does, i would think that in aircraft engines it would be more detrimental than in automotive.

A couple of scientists decided to go to Sam's Club and pick up a five gallon container of soybean oil. They thought they could start the conversion process with that.

The group put the oil in a reactor, and according to Senior Vice President Glen McDonald, the product was nearly identical to sweet crude oil. From there, Redijet was born.

"It looks exactly like petroleum, the carbon emissions are a little bit less," McDonald said. "Ours is the only one that will be certified as the 100 percent complete replacement for petroleum."

WGJH.com (Channel 7) - 'Readijet' biofuel created in Panama City to fuel military jets.

From soybean oil to jet fuel (even if their headline spells it wrong) is a pretty cool trick! I like the "sweet crude" part because the "sour" stuff that is being sold in bulk to the US from Saudi Arabia is carp. If they (Saudis) were not shaking in their thawbs before (with the Pres. Elect saying that he is dropping them) they really should be now.

Lower emissions and part of the natural carbon cycle is a real bonus. Even it is only used at first as a supplement to jet fuel already in use this is great news for the environment. I guess the soybean oil market is about to boom, huh?! It would be cool to go to see the Thunderbirds and have the smell of French fries in the air after they flyby!

S+F

PS - The news channel has a video with it that I am currently unable to watch which is one of the reasons for me posting links--to get back to things when not on the company's network (they encourage online activity except things like banking, u-tube, and gmail, so posting every now and then is the least thing they worry about. Heck, I get emails with shopping catalog links in it!) Anyway, cool story! Thanks Zaphod!

a reply to: Zaphod58

Sounds almost too good to be true...I'm skeptical at this point.

a reply to: grey580
Don't you mean hemp oil? That was the main reason for making hemp (marijuana) illegal in the first place. It was the oil companies that pushed that legislation through. As they knew it would be major competition for them.

Kitchen grease takes a lot of filtering. The refining costs I imagine would be hard to compensate for compared to light crude. I had a good friend who converted a Jetta and the filtering process was intensive. He was getting the oil for free but the time he put into filtering was sucking his life away.

a reply to: LifeMode

The way they do it, it takes about two minutes to convert. But they can use just about any kind of grease or oil to do it.

a reply to: hounddoghowlie

They've flown a private aircraft with it, but the Navy has only started testing in September or so. It'll be a little while longer before they tell if it will leave a residue.

a reply to: LifeMode

I cannot imagine that filtering grease from cooking amounts to nearly the same labour time as drilling it, extracting it, transporting it from rig to refinery, from refinery to fuel depot or storage location, then from there to navy bases for deployment wherever.

a reply to: TrueBrit

i'm thinking that if this goes the way they hope, that they won't use old cooking oil. they'll probably go to growing peanuts and using that like they did with corn and ethanol.

which could turn out to be a good thing for small farmers. in the northern end of the county i live in,there are many farmers that grow peanuts, and a lot of the farmland has been sold off because their children who inherited the farm can't make any money or don't want to farm. but if they can make a bunch of money on peanuts, they make quit selling off their farm land.

a reply to: hounddoghowlie

And raise our food prices.

a reply to: hounddoghowlie

I say use GM hemp. More fatty hemp seeds. It is already illegal (even if you can't a buzz off it) so why not? They can also make it non-pollinating so as to not infect other medicinal and genetically similar plants. Plus it grows like, uh, a weed.

And you can use the fibers for other uses. If can find a use for the leaves and bark, then there is a whole new cash crop.

Go Green! Fly high! Be all that you can be! Oh, that is the army. Well, you get the idea...

YEs!! my soybean stocks will skyrocket!!!!