By Eric Lindeman
Recognizing Earth Day, the U.S. Navy last week successfully conducted the first test flight at supersonic speeds of an F/A-18 Super Hornet multi-role fighter jet powered by a 50-50 biofuel blend.
The April 22 showcase of the “Green Hornet” at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., was attended by hundreds, including Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, who watched the flight and tracked data from a project engineering station at the Atlantic Test Range.
After the jet landed, Mabus greeted the pilot, Lt. Cmdr. Tom Weaver, of Billerica, Mass. A champion of alternative fuels development and deployment by the Navy and Marine Corp, the Navy secretary said, “The alternative fuels test program is a significant milestone in the certification and ultimate operational use of biofuels by the Navy and Marine Corps.
“It’s important to emphasize, especially on Earth Day, the Navy’s commitment to reducing dependence on foreign oil as well as safeguarding our environment. Our Navy, alongside industry, the other services and federal agency partners, will continue to be an early adopter of alternative energy sources.”
Naval use of petroluem-based fuels represents 25 percent of the Department of Defense’s total energy consumption which, in turn, accounts for nearly 80 percent of the U.S. government’s consumption. And aviation fuel represents about 42 percent of the Navy’s consumption.
The Green Hornet flew on a 50-50 blend of conventional JP-5 and a biofuel made from camelina oil. Camelina has a number of important advantages over other bio-feedstocks. It is the most readily available today, with tens of thousands of acres currently under management and that much more planned for the near term. And, most imporantly, camelina-based fuel can be used in unmodified jet and diesel engines.
The camelina plant, which requires less water, fertilzer and herbicides than other bio-feedstocks, is grown in rotation with wheat and does not displace food crops, while providing new jobs for farmers. Camelina seeds have a high natural oil content and, because it is only used as a source of renewable fuel, it is relatively inexpensive. Many biofuel producers believe camelina oil can be competitive with crude oil at today’s prices and even more so if crude oil prices rise.
The Defense Energy Support Center, which oversees procurement of biofuel for the Navy, said it recently awarded a $2.7 million contract to Sustainable Oils of Seattle, Wash., and Bozeman, Mont., for 40,000 gallons of the camelina-based fuel that powered the Green Hornet. Last September, Sustainable Oils announced that DESC had awarded it a contract for 100,000 gallons through 2010 that included an option to purchase an additional 100,000 gallons between June 2010 and December 2012.
Navy engineers reported that the Green Hornet performed as they had anticipated, with every parameter of the test flight completed successfully.
“These flight tests are part of an extensive test and evaluation process that started last fall,” said Rick Kamin, the Navy’s fuels team leader. “The fuel’s chemical and physical properties were first analyzed in the lab, followed by component and engine performance testing–and now in a series of flight tests covering the entire flight envelope of the Super Hornet–including supersonic operations.”
“Our mission today and for the rest of the flight tests is to confirm that the fuel makes no difference in performance across the Super Hornet’s entire flight envelope, from subsonic to supersonic operations,” said Mark Swierczek, Naval Air Systems Command propulsion flight test engineer. “Preliminary results show there was no difference in engine ops attributable to the biofuel. Engine performance is normal and as expected.”
“The aircraft flew exactly as we expected. No surprises,” said Weaver, F/A-18 project officer for Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23 and pilot for the flight test. “The fuel works so well, all I needed to do was just fly the plane.”
Kamin added that final approval and certification for the camelina-based biofuel could take an additional six to nine months after the April 22 flight test, which was one of 15 planned test flights requiring about 23 flight-hours to complete, starting in mid-April with completion by mid-June. The Earth Day flight lasted about 45 minutes.
Fuel for the successful test flight was produced by Honeywell [HON] UOP, which announced at the beginning of October that its renewable jet fuel process technology will be used to produce up to 190,000 gallons of fuel for the Navy and 400,000 gallons for the Air Force from sustainable, non-food feedstocks as part of a joint DESC program for alternative fuels testing and certification. Deliveries run through 2010.
In addition to Sustainable Oil’s camelina, Honeywell UOP is also working with partners Solazyme, which is developing algae-based feedstock, and food giant Cargill, which is providing animal fat or tallow.
In a statement the day before the Earth Day event, Mabus said, “The flight will demonstrate that our systems can work on biofuel. After it is successful–and we are absolutely confident that it will be–we will move to expand biofuel testing to our marine gas turbine engines and to the engines of our tactical vehicles.”
The Boeing [BA] F/A-18 Hornet is a twin-engine, tactical aircraft that converts between air-to-air fighter missions and air-to-ground strike missions while on the same sortie with the flick of a switch. Currently flown by the armed services of the United States and seven other nations–Canada, Australia, Spain, Kuwait, Finland, Switzerland, and Malaysia–the F/A-18 serves in day and night strike missions as fighter escort, reconnaissance, enemy air defense suppression, forward air control and close air support.