Mar 24 2010
Great Plains Oil & Exploration – The Camelina Company and Accelergy Corporation have signed an agreement to produce a clean biojet fuel by blending domestic coal and Camelina oil by utilizing CBTL (coal-biomass-to-liquid) technology.
CEO of Great Plains – The Camelina Company, Sam Huttenbauer, said the partnership with Accelergy Corporation enables the company to impact the jet fuel market significantly with biojet fuel that are sourced in the local market. The agreement will help to reduce the gap in the availability of low-cost biofuel from domestic sources as the company expands its Camelina production in North America, Huttenbauer said.
The demand for biojet fuel is set to increase significantly with the expected certification in 2012 for use of biofuels on commercial flights, target of the Air Force to use 50% of jet fuel that are sourced from domestic sources by 2016, and mandate of the European Union that 10% of the transportation fuel should be biofuels by2020.
VP of Business Development and Planning at Accelergy, Dr. Rocco Fiato, said the construction of facilities for the commercial-scale production of the synthetic fuels is limited. Fiato further said due to lack of improvement in technologies for the production of synthetic fuels, the construction of commercial-scale facilities has been slow.
CBTL starts with a gasification process that transforms raw material into feedstock. Through a liquefaction process that necessitates thermal and catalytic reactions, the feedstock is converted into fuel. CBTL technology from Accelergy is capable of emitting 20% lower carbon dioxide when compared to conventional refining methods.
Accelergy, through this agreement, will produce synthetic jet fuel by using liquefied coal blended with Great Plains Camelina oil. The synthetic jet fuel is identical to the standard petroleum fuel. The technology has been successful at laboratory and pilot projects.
Source: https://www.camelinacompany.com