The US Air Force's research, conducted through a network of university laboratories, into the conversion of domestic US coal into liquid fuels, has been well-documented in our dispatches to the WV Coal Association.
To a lesser extent, we have reported their corollary research into the synthesis of jet fuel from Carbon Dioxide-recycling algae; although the US Navy, as documented, is developing fuel synthesis technologies based on the direct conversion, the chemical recycling, of CO2 into hydrocarbons, and, through proxies, holds several patents on those technologies.
One of the Air Force's primary research partners in both their coal-to-liquid and their "indirect" CO2-recycling efforts is the University of Dayton, situated as it is near Ohio's Wright-Patterson Air Base.
Herein is a report summarizing some of the University's efforts.
The excerpt:
"Unlocking the Power of Algae
University of Dayton researchers are looking into algae as a way to wean the U.S. from foreign oil.
August 20, 2009 - Algae – the tiny scourge of backyard ponds and lakes – is destined to be a mighty hero in efforts to reduce carbon emissions headed for the atmosphere and wean America from its dependence on foreign oil, according to scientists at the University of Dayton Research Institute working on a two-year, $980,000 Air Force pollution-reduction contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
“It’s a beautifully symbiotic system,” said Sukh Sidhu, Ph.D., who leads the Sustainable Environmental Technologies group in the University of Dayton Research Institute’s Energy and Environmental Engineering division. “Algae feed on carbon dioxide and convert it to a highly desirable lipid. So we can capture carbon dioxide from stacks of coal boilers and other combustion processes before it’s released into the atmosphere and run it through algae growing systems. In turn, we can extract the oil for a variety of uses. We consider this a far better alternative for dealing with carbon dioxide emissions than geosequestration, where carbon dioxide is pumped deep into the earth.”
“You would need to take every single acre of food and nonfood cropland that exists in the United States today, multiply it by eight and dedicate it solely to corn to produce enough corn-based ethanol to meet even half the nation’s transport fuel needs. But only 1 percent of the equivalent of existing acreage would be needed to produce the same amount of biodiesel, jet fuel and ethanol from algae,” Sidhu said, noting that no actual cropland need be disturbed to farm algae, which does not require arable land to grow."
We interrupt the excerpt in order to emphasize, to call attention to, both the foregoing caution against attempting to use food crops and farmland for ethanol-based liquid fuel, and the concept embodied in the concluding paragraph, following:
"Tom Naguy, senior program manager in AFRL’s Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, said algae will be used to reduce the carbon footprint of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s new Assured Aerospace Fuels Research Facility at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Researchers from the University of Dayton Research Insitute and AFRL are working to determine best practices for creating jet fuel out of coal and biomass. Algae can be used in that program as both a fuel feedstock and to sequester carbon dioxide in the process."
In sum: Our Air Force is "creating jet fuel out of coal". And, "algae can be used ... as both a feedstock (for use in the coal-to-liquid technology) and to sequester carbon dioxide in the process" - "a far better alternative for dealing with carbon dioxide emissions than geosequestration".