I’ve been saving this post from Defense Tech for a few months now, not sure what to do with it, until now. The post, entitled Stop Funding America’s Enemies, explores the odd position the U.S. military finds itself in – having to buy fuel from countries in the Middle East. So, in a manner of speaking, the United States is funding both sides of the war. Hmmmm.
The Defense Tech post refers to an article in Defense Technology International on the U.S. military’s dependence on oil (Going Green: Military pursue hybrid vehicles to replace gaz-guzzling fleets). The Pentagon is the world’s biggest single oil consumer, the article says. In 2004, the U.S. military used 400,000 barrel of fuel a day, at cost of $6.7 billion. In 2006, the cost is expected to reach $10 billion. The article reviews the hybrid solutions on the horizon and in the works – mostly for land vehicles.
DARPA is looking at this problem from the air. A BAA released in July calls for the energy alternatives and fuel efficiency efforts to reduce the military’s reliance on traditional fuel for aircraft. From the press release:
DARPA is looking for processes that will efficiently produce alternative non-petroleum based military jet fuel from agriculture or aquaculture crops. Current commercial processes do not produce alternative fuels that meet the higher energy density and wide operating temperature range necessary for military aviation uses.... The goal of the BioFuels program is to develop an affordable alternative production process that will achieve a 60 percent or greater conversion efficiency, by energy content, of crop oil to military aviation fuel (JP-8) and elucidate a path to 90 percent conversions.
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