DoD orders up portable biofuel plants for military use
The U.S. Department of Defense has selected two companies, Diversified Energy and Velocys, to design a mobile biofuel manufacturing plant that would process organic waste from military installations. The plans are to use pyrolysis to create syngas to be used as biofuel for military vehicles and planes. The specifications also require these mobile plants to be able to produce the equivalent of 500 oil barrels per day.
The press release mentions that the Dept. of Defense is the U.S. largest fuel consumer in the country, with a $9 billion budget for fuel per year. Shaving off as much money (and the burden of transportation) from such a huge amount of fuel seems a good idea. Just think of the weight from armor, ammunition and the guns a regular vehicle has to carry and multiply by ... a lot.
The project is in a design phase, which would lead to a prototype in a not too distant future.
Related:
- Altair Nanotechnologies nets $7 million in Defense Appropriations Bill
- Just how much of a difference could efficiency gains make on oil imports? A lot
- Polaris MV800 ATV with Patriot engine uses multiple fuels
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
GreyFlcn 11:25AM (12/29/2007)
Ooh ooh!
If you drive the kids to school in a Abrams M1 Tank, filled with biodiesel, is it green?
It gets about 2 gallons per mile.
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stanger_missle 3:45PM (1/01/2008)
The DOD is starting to realize that it spends close to 2.5-3% of its budget on fuel. Thats about $1.3 million dollars for FY2007. A big change I have seen is the transition to smaller non-combat vehicles. Why spend $25-30,000 on a fullsize truck that gets 14MPG, when you could spend $12k on a vehicle that gets 25MPG to do the same mission? Here within the next 4-5 years, most branches of the DoD are going to transition to something similar the these: http://www.tigertruck.com/index.html
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Craig 8:07PM (12/29/2007)
"The press release mentions that the Dept. of Defense is the U.S. largest fuel consumer in the country, with a $9 billion budget for fuel per year. "
What do they mean with "In the country", the US Dept of Defense spends less time in the US than Paris Hilton spends in her undies.
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Tim 12:04PM (12/30/2007)
The U.S. empire is too expensive and this is one way to cut costs. Of course the best way to have your cake and eat it too is to follow the Constitution and not build empires in the first place...
Go Ron Paul!
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mike baz 7:04AM (12/31/2007)
Amen Tim
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