Two of the United States Air Force’s demonstration jets took to the skies powered by a 50 percent blend of biofuel produced by Honeywell UOP. The company aims to have its biofuel brand be fully certified by the Air Force for its air fleet in the next two years.
The Thunderbirds, the Air Force’s air demonstration team, have used Honeywell UOP’s Green Jet fuel brand made from camelina, a flowering plant known for its biofuel potentials.
Two F-16 demonstration jets from the Joint Base Andrews in Maryland flew last May 20 and 21 with a 50 percent blend of camelina-based biofuel, with petroleum-based jet fuel as the other half. The company claimed that the flight using a blend of the alternative biofuel is the first made by an air demonstration team.
Honeywell’s Green Jet camelina-based fuel has been certified by the Air Force for use on the F-16 fighter planes as well as the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, a military transport aircraft that can carry 179,000 pounds of cargo load.
Other planes that have flown with the Green Jet fuel include the A-10 Thunderbolt, the first military which Honeywell UOP held its first demonstration flight in March 2010, the F-15 Eagle and the F-22 Raptor fighter planes.
Honeywell UOP’s Green Jet Fuel process technology was originally developed in 2007 under a contract from the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to produce renewable military jet fuel for the U.S. military. It has set its sights on serving the Air Force with the full certification of the Green Jet fuel for its planes by 2013.
The company has so far produced 400,000 gallons of Green Jet Fuel for the Air Force as part of a joint program for the United States Defense Logistics Agency – Energy for alternative fuels testing and certification with the final delivery to be made by early May 2011.
The use of bio-jet fuel on aircrafts has been concentrated on commercial airline applications. Commitments have been made by 15 airline companies around the world to use an alternative aviation fuel to cut down emissions, which included the usage of camelina oil.
