Burns Cleaner, Cheaper Than JP-8

Alternative fuels have been in the news for some time, and especially after President Bush's state of the union speech earlier this month -- but until now, those stories have focused almost exclusively on automobiles. What about airplanes?

The Associated Press reports University of North Dakota researchers say they've developed an alternative to jet fuel that burns cooler and is more eco-friendly than conventional JP-8. The fuel is derived from crop oils, which also results in lower cost -- about 40 cents per gallon less than the military currently pays for its jet fuel.

UND chemical engineering students, working with faculty from the School of Engineering and Mines at the college, have been working with scientists from the Energy and Environmental Research Center for the past four years to develop the new jet fuel, senior EERC researcher Ted Aulich said.

While the new fuel sounds promising, there is a "sticking point" -- the new fuel's tendency to congeal when stored over long periods. Also, the new fuel must burn below the military-spec requirement of the minus-50 degrees Celsius -- but researchers say they've been able to burn the new fuel at temperatures 10 degrees cooler than that.

All work is preliminary... but the Air Force will begin testing the new fuel this spring in a lab at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.

FMI: www.eerc.und.nodak.edu/