US military jets to run on weeds, scum & corpse-grease

Well on track to making their aircraft run on coal, the US forces have just ordered 600,000 gallons of renewable jet fuel made from weeds, algae or rendered fat from animal corpses. News of the biofuel push comes courtesy of Honeywell subsidiary UOP, which has been developing sustainable/renewable biofuels for use in jet …

[Simon 6]

Had to be the Military to cotton on first

Knowledge of Peak Oil has been around for years and yet Governments and the Military have been very slow to respond to the problems ahead.

It seems, in the USA at least, that they are finally waking up to the real issues of limited oil in the not-too-distant future...

[Niall 1]

Sustainable alright

Animal corpses ie dead people fuel figther jets. Fighter jets kill people. Perfect.

[Anonymous Coward]

Soylent Green

For a while now, petrol[eum distillate] companies have been promoting their fuels as being green. Now we know what they mean!

[Brian Miller]

Soylent Green for jets!

Well, now, the green revolution is getting under way just fine! Fluffy, you, too, shall serve our country.

Or maybe this means that the ROTM will find that there are over 6 billion fuel cells running about...

[Charles 9]

At least the military is honest.

They said right off they're not so concerned with environmental issues, and for most militaries that isn't a priority. Ensuring an unbroken supply chain, OTOH, IS a valid concern, just as you don't want potentially-collapsible bridges across key military harbors.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not the first

Has anyone read A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah! also by Harry Harrison? There they had coal fired aircraft.

[Matt 32]

Meh...

>It seems, in the USA at least, that they are finally waking up to the real issues of limited oil in

>the not-too-distant future...

Don't forget the substantial reserves the lie off the U.S. coast that are either off-limits or too expensive comparable to imports to exploit.

The U.S. remains one of the largest oil producers today -- 20% less then Saudi Arabia (#1), and twice as much as Iran (#4).

There's a lot more oil still to be pumped. But that doesn't mean there isn't a good case to be made for developing alternatives more heavily, such as nuclear power (for electric heating to displace oil in the northeast), or compressed natural gas for motor vehicles to reduce gasoline and diesel usage.

[Kevin McMurtrie]

MPC

What's the miles-per-corpse of a jet? Is there a corpse guzzler tax? Credits for introducing new corpses into the biofuel pool? Corpse-neutral status if burn=kill?

[Rob Dobs]

Glad I'm not the only one

Niall: Glad I'm not the only one sick enough to think this first.

How long before the military goes crazy in a "must to kill in order to make fuel in order to kill" death cycle.

Does this qualify as ROTM (rise of the machines) or no since we are doing it to ourselves?

[Mathew White]

@Bit Fiddler

Damn you for posting first :)

[Boris the Cockroach]

How long

Before the military drones flying about realise they can get their fuel from rendered down human beings instead of having to rely on the humans...............

Yours

Boris

<<currently preparing his guns and ammunition stockpile

[Anonymous Coward]

@Ivan4

No this isn't a Nazi uber post,

but Dr Lippish design a coal fired aircraft, we are not talking steam train technology but a more volatile substance based upon micronised coal dust.....

....proabably akin to the way you can *alledgedly make explosives out for fine ground flour!?

[TeeCee]

Shurely shome mishtake?

"About a tonne of coal has to be burned to produce a tonne of synthifuel with this method."

A tonne of jet fuel from every tonne of coal? That sounds rather efficient to me. Has someone got their figures wrong here?

[sandman]

Marketing blurb

"Our fuel is only made from the finest, freshest, fattest corpses, lovingly sourced from exotic far-away countries you've never heard of. Each corpse is tenderly rendered down and the clearest, most calorie-laden fat expertly distilled into our premium fuel."

Editor's Note:

No animals are hurt in the production of "People Petrol" (Trademark pending).

All corpses are gathered from sustainable sources.

Carbon neutral.

(With apologies to Monty Python)

[Anonymous Coward]

Pedant

Am I wrong in understanding corpses to be human and that a dead animal is usually termed a carcass? Or are you talking about the human animal?

[breakfast]

@Rob Dobs

It does count as ROTM because these engines will surely be going in drones and whathaveyou. So yes, soon they will be able to kill and eat us meatbags at will. Huge robotic eagles swooping down, laser eyes blasting, to grab puny humans into their huge fuel scoops for "processing".

I, for one...

[copsewood]

Fischer-Tropsch process and fuel synthesis

"Synthetic jetfuel made from coal using the Fischer-Tropsch process is already certified on many US military aircraft, but this is actually worse in carbon emissions than using crude oil. About a tonne of coal has to be burned to produce a tonne of synthifuel with this method."

AFAIK, the Fischer-Tropsch process is more flexible this. Given sources of hydrogen and CO it can produce synthetic fuels as described. But there is nothing other than cost to prevent the CO coming from burning sustainable vegetation or algae and the hydrogen coming from electrolysis of water using wind or other renewable electricity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer%E2%80%93Tropsch_process

[Anonymous Coward]

@TeeCee

Yeah right.. a Fuel that takes a tonne of another fuel to make is efficient? think about it..

fuel that needs 100% of another fuel - proposed fuel

Verses

Fuel that needs 1% of another fuel - existing oil fuel

I dotn think you can call it a fuel.. more like a chemical battery that needs a tonne of coal to charge it.

[Throatwobbler Mangrove]

i, for one, will be screaming...

..."SOYLENT GREEN IS PETROL!"

[phoenix]

Hmmm rendered fat

from animal corpses. I wonder how may hectares of land will needed to be wasted to produce the feed for these animals and if indeed these animals will be eaten.

Headlines "Yanks die fat helping to eat mountain of US Mil meat not needed after fat has beeen removed."