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Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Alternate Fuel-Powered B-52 to fly in September


This year, the Air Force will test fly a B-52 Stratofortress that is powered, in part, by fuel derived from natural gas.

The Air Force Research Laboratory's propulsion directorate, a part of Air Force Materiel Command, is providing technical assistance to the test flight scheduled for September at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The bomber will fly with two of its eight jet engines using a specially blended fuel made of conventional petroleum-derived JP-8 and a Fischer-Tropsch jet fuel produced from natural gas.

The experiment is part of the Department of Defense's Assured Fuel Initiative, an effort to develop secure domestic sources for the military's energy needs.

Alternative jet fuels can be produced from domestically available hydrocarbon products like natural gas, coal and shale using the Fischer-Tropsch process, which was developed in Germany in the early 1920s. Gasification can convert any hydrocarbon feedstock (raw material required for an industrial process) into a synthesis gas that can then, through the Fischer-Tropsch process, be converted into any number of liquid fuel products.

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