GroundSupportWorldWide.com |

That much production is beyond the present scope of the project.

So far, Schobert has produced only 500 gallons of a prototype fuel, and that was shipped to the Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, for testing. The results of that work included the successful operation of a T-63 turboshaft engine.

"I can tell you that two major U.S. airlines have expressed some interest in this fuel and I have briefed some fairly high level managers from one of them," Schobert said. Schobert declined to name the airlines, but said they are national or international carriers.

A coal-based jet fuel intrigues some aviation experts.

"If JP900 is found to be a proper replacement for Jet-A (which is kerosene based), it is conceivable that the jet fleet could eventually switch over to the new fuel after FAA certification," said Will Alibrandi, an Aero Gas Turbine Analyst for the aviation market analysis firm, Forecast International. Alibrandi said the big obstacle will be the cost to produce this fuel compared to the petro-based jet fuels currently being used.

Schobert said the process that creates JP900 can be carried out in existing refineries with some retrofitting and small amounts of the leftover components will feed into various portions of the petroleum stream. The lighter portions will go to the pool of chemicals that make gasoline and the heavier ones go to the diesel or fuel oil streams.

"The advantages of JP900 would have to be weighed against the cost and environmental considerations, although the applications for such a fuel could be wide ranging," Alibrandi said.

Socialist Technology

This is not the first time coal has been used to produce fuel. In the late 1930s, one of the ways Hitler's National Socialist Party sought economic self sufficiency for Germany was to replace imported oil with an alternative fuel derived from domestic coal.

When the Allies bombed German oil refineries, the Germans were forced to put the technology into operation. By the end of World War II, they were producing millions of barrels of coal-based fuels. "It is amazing that we are only now considering replicating technology that existed in production format 60 or more years ago," said military technology expert Ned Barnett. Barnett said as long as petroleum was relatively cheap and plentiful, there was no incentive to confront the entrenched oil industry with alternative technologies.