The Air Force will officially end its alternative fuel certification efforts in two to three weeks when the service’s biofuels czar is reassigned to another program.
Air Force Alternative Fuels Certification Division (AFCD) chief Jeff Braun told Defense Daily through a spokesman last week the division had been unsuccessful at securing additional funding to continue certification efforts, he said, likely due to current budget tightening.
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| The A-10 was used by the Air Force in 2012 to affirm Alcohol-to-Jet (ATJ) fuel as a viable alternative to power the service’s aircraft. Photo: Air Force. |
Braun said his departure leaves a lot of uncertainty with the Air Force’s current, and future, position on alternative aviation fuels.
“While the initiative remains a part of the service’s overall strategy, no funding has been made available,” Braun said.
Braun said in February he hoped a $10 million Defense Department reprogramming request would keep the Air Force’s Alcohol-to-Jet (ATJ) certification effort, a key biofuel initiative, alive. Braun’s office had been pursuing additional funds since the summer of 2012.
Tim Edwards, Air Force senior chemical engineer, fuels branch, will take over for Braun, who said Edwards will be responsible for laboratory analysis and characterization of candidate alternative fuels. Braun said while Edwards’ funding is minimal, he believes Edwards’ office will continue to provide science and technology (S&T) support for an overall tri-service effort, which Braun said is now largely Army and Navy.
Braun was the final asset remaining in the division as a “majority” of experienced personnel at AFCD had been re-assigned to other duties as far back as December (Defense Daily, Dec. 19).
While not as large as the Navy’s investment in alternative fuels, the Air Force has spent a substantial sum of money over the years developing alternative fuels that can be “dropped-in,” or used in any Air Force jet without modifying engines for use. DoD has also encouraged this as a way of weaning the services off of traditional, petroleum-based fossil fuels that are often obtained from adversaries of the United States (Defense Daily, Jan. 25).
The Air Force affirmed last summer in an A-10 initial feasibility demonstration ATJ is a viable alternative to power the service’s aircraft. ATJ is a cellulosic-based fuel that can be derived using wood, paper, grass or anything that is a cell-based material. The sugars extracted from these materials are fermented into alcohols, which are then hydro-processed into the aviation-grade kerosene used for aviation fuel.