NASA, GE To Revisit Fuel Efficient Propfan Technology.
InventorSpot (7/8, Delozier) reported on NASA and General Electric's decision to revisit the open rotor jet engine technology they started developing in the 1980s. According to the article, "the process begins by using a turbofan engine with the fans relocated to the outside of the engine housing," and "as the exhaust from the turbofan engine is forced out, they pass over a turbine which is connected to a prop on the exterior, while the other prop is driven by the turbofan." The article noted that, "along with the high flight speeds, the engine also showed a 30% to 35% decrease in fuel consumption. ... Skip to today's market, where the price of fuel is driving everyone in the transportation business to find ways to increase efficiency and decrease consumption, and the Propfan engine could change the air transportation industry as we know it."
US Airlines Agree To Buy Rentech's Synthetic Fuel.
Bloomberg News (8/18, Schlangenstein) reports, "Delta Air Lines Inc., AMR Corp.'s American Airlines and six other US carriers agreed to buy as much as 1.5 million gallons a year of Rentech Inc.'s diesel fuel made from plant waste." The synthetic fuel, scheduled for introduction "in late 2012 for ground-service equipment at Los Angeles International Airport," will be produced "at a plant in Rialto, California, slated to open in 2012." Vehicles that use "the diesel fuel 'will be among the cleanest and greenest of their kind,' said Rentech CEO D. Hunt Ramsbottom."
Navy Chemists Turn Seawater Into Jet Fuel.
New Scientist (8/18, Kleiner) reported, "Faced with global warming and potential oil shortages, the US navy is experimenting with making jet fuel from seawater." The process, which is being tested by Navy chemists, "involves extracting carbon dioxide dissolved in the water and combining it with hydrogen – obtained by splitting water molecules using electricity – to make a hydrocarbon fuel." The experiment "uses a variant of a chemical reaction called the Fischer-Tropsch process, which is used commercially to produce a gasoline-like hydrocarbon fuel from syngas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen often derived from coal."