Rocket Fueled with Renewable JP-8 Approaches the Sound Barrier
22 July 2009
Renewable jet propellant-8 (JP-8) fuel developed and produced by the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) at the University of North Dakota powered a rocket built by Flometrics, Inc., a product engineering company specializing in fluid dynamics and thermodynamics based in San Diego, California. The fuel burn was so successful that the rocket approached Mach 1 and reached an altitude of about 20,000 feet.
EERC is using a thermocatalytic cracking and separation process in its production of JP-8 from vegetable oils. UOP is working on the hydrogenation/de-oxygenation of free fatty acids, and GE is gasifying biomass to bio-oil, then hydroprocessing the bio-oil process. (Earlier post.)
The launch was conducted on a hot summer day in the Mojave Desert, home to numerous aviation and rocket tests throughout history, just outside of San Diego.
The demonstration worked very well, and we were pleased with the fuel. In fact, it performed better than expected. The initial launch was a little explosive, which we call a hard-start, but it ended up working very well. The rocket appeared to have reached the transonic regime close to Mach 1. The data are currently being evaluated for more details on this exciting flight.
—Steve Harrington, President of Flometrics
The EERC’s fuel was created from completely renewable crop oils, such as canola and soybeans. Developed through a variety of existing contracts, the fuel was tested at the Wright–Patterson Air Force Base Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), a cosponsor of the test along with the EERC and Flometrics, and meets all of the screening criteria for JP-8 aviation fuel, a petroleum-based fuel widely used by the US military. The major advantage of the EERC’s renewable fuel is that the fuel can be designed to meet a wide variety of mission-specific requirements.
About 8 gallons of fuel was sent to the Flometrics research facilities, enough for two launches. The rocket used in the launch was originally built as a test rocket for the Discovery Channel series MythBusters. The rocket has previously been tested with standard Jet-A fuel and rocket propellant-1 (RP-1) kerosene, for which the rocket was originally designed.
The EERC is currently securing further funding for more extensive rocket testing of the fuel. The AFRL may also be testing the fuel in this type of high-propulsion scenario.
Resources
Video clip of rocket flight
Like the early days of rocketry. Robert Goddard would be proud.
Posted by: sulleny | 22 July 2009 at 10:42 AM
The V-2 used methanol back in '42.
Posted by: Mannstein | 22 July 2009 at 12:50 PM
Lets see if if the use of "renewable" oils will renew the forests that have vanished from Alaska and Oregon just in the last 40 years. Or how about the renewing of the grassy great plains and the Bison. Any oil from soy is food.
CO2 is not the problem, people are. Are foods going to be rationed to people so that everyone has the same production of organic CO2.
One company demonstrated that their hydraulic hybrid conversion of an existing car reduced fuel consumption to half in standard tests. Did US law makers mandate the use of this system in every new car.
Just do the calculations of how much oil is imported and how many tons of soy and corn are grown in the US and the futility of "renewable" automobile, airplane, rocket and locomotive fuels becomes apparent. It is hard to estimate how many adults or, if you want to be callous, children had an earlier demise because of the high prices for corn caused by the mandates for ethanol.
The people who keep promising cheap fusion power and those who fund it could send some monies in other directions.
Nuclear power plants designed only for building heating can be buried deep below every town and city to supply fake geothermal heat at low cost and no CO2. Building heating does not require super hot high pressure water that steam turbines require. Chernobyl demonstrated that with no high pressure steam pipes there would be no explosion and all the radiation would be contained if buried beneath a hundred feet of sand. The sand would have prevented the fire as well.
The natural gas saved by using nuclear heat can now be used for making liquid fuels. The Coal saved by nuclear power plants can be used for liquid fuels. Thermal hydrogen production with pebble bed reactors or accelerator driven systems can be combined with stored CO2 to make liquid fuels. Hydrogen and CO2 can be fed to some organisms even to make biofuels.
A $35 tax on imported oil will support US fuel efforts forever. Coal to liquids will support that price as will gas to liquids. Ethanol from Brazil is taxed to support local ethanol.
The production of liquid fuels from coal may not even increase the release of CO2 over the production from foreign oil. The CO2 release in foreign countries in the production of oil is not well known and not controlled. Gas flaring and oil spills are contibutors to CO2 release in the production of oil that is not well controlled or well known. In the US, coal to liquid plants can be built close to oil fields where the CO2 can be used to increase production. The CO2 can be piped hundreds of miles. ..HG..
Posted by: Henry Gibson | 22 July 2009 at 01:02 PM
Very interesting...I think Richard Branson might want in on this at some point for his space flight program.
Posted by: ejj | 22 July 2009 at 07:08 PM
Am I missing some point here?
Is there some reason that we have to find new uses for renewable fuels?
Do we have excess renewable fuels that we cannot use for cars or trucks or trains or power plants?
It will be a long time before we have excess renewable fuels and must find out if it burns in rockets and jet planes or works as charcoal lighter.
Posted by: ToppaTom | 22 July 2009 at 09:19 PM
The goal is to confirm that artificial carbon-neutral fuels, not just biofuels, will work in jet and rocket engines. For airplanes at least there is no practical fuel other than liquid hydrocarbons. The bulk and extreme cold of liquid hydrogen are completely impractical for airplanes and only marginally acceptable in rockets.
Posted by: richard schumacher | 23 July 2009 at 06:29 AM