USS Ford conducts operational transit on 50/50 blend of Solazyme algal fuel and petroleum F-76
14 March 2012
The US Navy frigate USS Ford (FFG 54) successfully transited from the ship’s homeport in Everett, Wash., to San Diego using 25,000 gallons of a 50/50 blend of SoladieselHRD-76, Solazyme’s 100% algal-derived renewable marine diesel fuel and petroleum F-76 blend in the ship’s LM 2500 gas turbines.
USS Ford’s transit on the algal blend marks the first demonstration of the alternative fuel blend in an operational fleet ship.
We’ve done basically every range of research vessel we could test: the experimental riverine command boat; the Naval Academy’s yard patrol; a landing craft utility, a landing craft air cushion amphibious, and self defense test ship. Each test has brought us a little closer to the upcoming Green Strike Group demonstration set for later this year.
—Richard Leung, Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) Navy Fuels engineering manager
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| USS Ford. Click to enlarge. |
Meeting the secretary of the Navy’s call for a drop-in fuel replacement, no changes were required to the infrastructure of the ship or fueling pier for the test. The blended fuel was stationed on a barge in Puget Sound off Bremerton, Wash., and immediately available to the Ford for testing.
The ship burned all 25,000 gallons during the transit, and according to Leung, feedback from the ship’s engineers was favorable.
Solazyme has successfully completed the delivery of more than 500,000 liters of in-specification fuel to the US Navy including the largest deliveries of microbially-derived advanced biofuels in history. In December 2011, Dynamic Fuels, LLC, a joint venture between Tyson Foods, Inc. and Syntroleum Corporation, announced it had been awarded a contract to supply the US Navy with 450,000 gallons (1.7 million liters) of renewable fuels. Solazyme is partnered with Dynamic Fuels to fulfill the contract, and delivery to the US Navy is scheduled for May 2012, marking the single largest purchase of advanced biofuel in government history.
Solazyme’s renewable diesel and jet fuels meet all of the EU, ASTM and draft military specifications for diesel, marine diesel and jet biofuels.
Opening doors.
Posted by: kelly | 14 March 2012 at 05:16 AM
What was the cost per gallon??? Turbines can burn any fuel and have even attempted to burn powdered coal. Believe it or not, big piston engines are now the modern replacement for turbines in ships and are much more efficient. Decades ago there were $500 each hammers for the US military. The military should make every gallon of its jet fuel and diesel out of coal and it would put less CO2 in the air than fuel from Russia or many other producers who waste vast quantities of oil and natural gas into the environment which would be controlled and monitored locally instead. Dakota Gasification could add a diesel production unit and produce the lowest CO2 diesel in the world right now because it already captures CO2 and already sells much of it for permanent use.
If the US military produced all of its fuel from coal, massive amounts of money would be saved and the US could use all of the CO2 produced in such plants to increase production at existing oil fields.
..HG..
Posted by: Henry Gibson | 15 March 2012 at 12:44 AM