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Katie
Couric on LBJ

US Navy 'game-changer': converting seawater into
fuel

By
Mathieu Rabechault
April 7, 2014 11:05 AM

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SEAWATER-FUELED BATTLESHIPS

Washington (AFP) - The US Navy believes it has finally worked out the
solution to a problem that has intrigued scientists for decades: how to take
seawater and use it as fuel.

The development of a liquid hydrocarbon fuel is being hailed as "a
game-changer" because it would signficantly shorten the supply chain, a weak
link that makes any force easier to attack.

The US has a fleet of 15 military oil tankers, and only aircraft carriers and
some submarines are equipped with nuclear propulsion.

All other vessels must frequently abandon their mission for a few hours to
navigate in parallel with the tanker, a delicate operation, especially in bad
weather.

The ultimate goal is to eventually get away from the dependence on oil
altogether, which would also mean the navy is no longer hostage to potential
shortages of oil or fluctuations in its cost.

Vice Admiral Philip Cullom declared: "It's a huge milestone for us."

View gallery

Dr. Heather
Willauer explains how scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington,
DC can  …

"We are in very challenging times where we really do have to think in pretty
innovative ways to look at how we create energy, how we value energy and how we
consume it.

"We need to challenge the results of the assumptions that are the result of
the last six decades of constant access to cheap, unlimited amounts of fuel,"
added Cullom.

"Basically, we've treated energy like air, something that's always there and
that we don't worry about too much. But the reality is that we do have to worry
about it."

US experts have found out how to extract carbon dioxide and hydrogen gas from
seawater.

Then, using a catalytic converter, they transformed them into a fuel by a
gas-to-liquids process. They hope the fuel will not only be able to power ships,
but also planes.

View gallery

This April
2, 2014 US Navy handout image shows a beaker of fuel(right) made from seawater
by scienti …

That means instead of relying on tankers, ships will be able to produce fuel
at sea.

- 'Game-changing' technology -

The predicted cost of jet fuel using the technology is in the range of three
to six dollars per gallon, say experts at the US Naval Research Laboratory, who
have already flown a model airplane with fuel produced from seawater.

Dr Heather Willauer, an research chemist who has spent nearly a decade on the
project, can hardly hide her enthusiasm.

"For the first time we've been able to develop a technology to get CO2 and
hydrogen from seawater simultaneously, that's a big breakthrough," she said,
adding that the fuel "doesn't look or smell very different."

View gallery

A general
view of a US Navy ship at the Washington Naval Yard on September 17, 2013 in
Washington, D …

Now that they have demonstrated it can work, the next step is to produce it
in industrial quantities. But before that, in partnership with several
universities, the experts want to improve the amount of CO2 and hydrogen they
can capture.

"We've demonstrated the feasibility, we want to improve the process
efficiency," explained Willauer.

Collum is just as excited.

"For us in the military, in the Navy, we have some pretty unusual and
different kinds of challenges," he said.

"We don't necessarily go to a gas station to get our fuel, our gas station
comes to us in terms of an oiler, a replenishment ship.

"Developing a game-changing technology like this, seawater to fuel, really is
something that reinvents a lot of the way we can do business when you think
about logistics, readiness."

A crucial benefit, says Collum, is that the fuel can be used in the same
engines already fitted in ships and aircraft.

"If you don't want to re-engineer every ship, every type of engine, every
aircraft, that's why we need what we call drop-in replacement fuels that look,
smell and essentially are the same as any kind of petroleum-based fuels."

Drawbacks? Only one, it seems: researchers warn it will be at least a decade
before US ships are able to produce their own fuel on board.

Science

Renewable Energy & Energy Saving

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