Pond Scum Could Soon Fuel Military

The Pentagon recently announced that their recent effort at developing an algae-based fuel is ahead of schedule and proceeding apace. Pentagon researchers estimate that they are mere months away from developing a fuel that would be cost competitive with fossil fuels currently in use.

This new program is in keeping with the Pentagon’s goal of achieving a zero carbon footprint within a decade. The Air Force, for example, already has plans to make its jet fleet alternative-fuel ready by 2011, aiming to have all aircraft capable of functioning on a 50/50 blend of synthetic and fossil fuels. When first announced, such a zero carbon footprint goal for the military sector, which relies heavily on hardware and the fuel required to run it, seemed decidedly optimistic. However, this new fuel source promises to make these supposedly pie-in-the-sky goals much more realistic to achieve.

Anyone else making claims about cost-competitive fuel made from algae would likely be taken lightly—if not dismissed out of hand as an environmentalist’s sci-fi fantasy. But when the claimant is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the same research arm of the military that gave us satellite navigation and the internet, such “wild-eyed” claims suddenly start looking less like flights of eco-fantasy and more like credible and meaningful advances in green fuel technology.

The reported advance comes after DARPA invested nearly $25 million into the algae fuel research program last year, contracting with Science Applications International Corp to assist DARPA in developing algae-based fuel for use by the military. As a result of their efforts, researchers have already cracked how to extract oil from algal ponds for less than $2 per gallon, and the project is now on track to begin large-scale refining of this oil into jet fuel at a cost of less than $3 per gallon. For comparison, the current average price of regular motor gasoline nationwide currently hovers around $2.60 per gallon, and the price of consumer jet fuel at airports ranges between $4 and $5 per gallon, depending on the region. Thus, DARPA’s new jet fuel source holds the promise of ultimately being greener, cleaner and cheaper than existing fuels and fuel sources.

Just as satellites and the internet outstripped their military origins in application, so too is this advance likely to have a broad array of impacts outside the military. For example, one of the advantages of the algae-to-fuel process is that algal pools can be “fed” by waste water runoff or by soaking up CO2 emissions from existing power plants. And, one of the problems with electric vehicles is that they don’t generally have sufficient horsepower to displace gas-fueled 18-wheelers or other heavy machinery that perform jobs requiring serious horsepower to complete. So, algae-based fuel that can provide horsepower sufficient to keep military jets in the air is also likely to be able to help make other sectors of the economy greener and more eco-friendly over the long-term. Thus, DARPA’s latest efforts at finding a way to cost-effectively mass produce this fuel could prove to be something of a game changer, turning a promising technology into a market-ready one with a broad array of potential uses and applications across the economy.

Jeremey Dobbins, Legal Intern