One thing the U.S. military is known for is standardization. Now that it is involved in biofuels, look for biodiesel to become more consistent and available. With its large resources of manpower and money, the advancement of renewable fuels will accelerate much faster than if only the small hobbyist was involved. The mining, agricultural, and commercial airline industries are also working to get biofuels off the ground. Heck, even the oil companies are jumping on board. Exxon Mobil recently invested $600 million dollars in algae-based biofuels.
The United States Department of Defense created the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 1958 after the Soviet Union successfully launched the Sputnik satellite. Since then, DARPA's job has been to make sure we don't fall behind in military technology. In August of 2007, DARPA's Program Manager for Biofuels Dr. Doug Kirkpatrick explained: "Throughout history, energy has been the limiting factor in all military operations, whether it was Roman armies foraging for supplies, or General George S. Patton running out of fuel as he dashed across France, or the long military buildup in Desert Storm. The situation today is no different. Most of the convoys on the road in Iraq are delivering fuel and batteries. These are arguably our most exposed targets, and the toll in lives and material is huge. We're tied down in an endless web of logistics. Seventy percent of our strategic logistics requirements is moving bulk fluids, primarily fuel."
This biofuels program currently under development is "focused on developing JP-8 that is indistinguishable from petroleum-based JP-8, but that is 100 percent biofuel, and not a blend with a petroleum-based fuel."
The airlines are also interested in biofuels because it is a technology ready to go into existing planes with no modifications needed. In January of 2009, Sustainable Oils provided Japan Airlines with oil mostly produced from camelina. The fuel was blended with Jet-A by Honeywell's Universal Oil Products (UOP) division using a secret hydro-processing technology. The Boeing 747-300 aircraft ran a 50 percent blend in one of its Pratt & Whitney JT9D engines. The flight was successful according to the engineers, chemists, and pilots involved with the demonstration. As stated earlier, the fuel was mostly camelina-based. Following its source, Diesel Power went to the Midwest to get a better understanding of how the agricultural industry is linked to biofuels.
Growing Fuel
Both Rudolf Diesel and Henry Ford were vocal supporters of farmer-grown biofuels. They believed homegrown energy would provide local jobs and keep transportation costs down. Today, the United States imports almost 60 percent of the 20 million barrels of oil we use every day to make life, as we know it, possible. In small towns across the country, main streets are becoming vacant and gas stations are usually the only places to find signs of life. Imagine what would happen if the money being poured into fuel stations stayed in the community. That is one of the promises of biofuels. In order to make it happen, farmers are going to need a variety of quality crops, the right infrastructure to harvest them, and a path to get the fuel to the market.
 In January of 2009, the biggest...  In January of 2009, the biggest names in the airline industry participated in a biofuels flight demonstration. What's incredible is this was done with no modifications to the plane's jet engines. |  The U.S. Navy's amphibious...  The U.S. Navy's amphibious assault ship USS Essex and the amphibious dock landing ship USS Harpers Ferry simulate refueling at sea. The Department of Defense spent $12.6 billion on jet fuel, diesel, and other fuels in 2007, with operations in Iraq and Afghanistan consuming just $1.7 billion of that total. |  |