7-1 FB Growing Jet Fuel

 With a tight economy, and razor thin profit margins, western farmers are looking for new ways to make money. They have to look no further than the skies.  The U.S. Air Force just announced the successful flight of an A-10 Thunderbolt using a biofuel blend of camelina, an oilseed crop mixed with conventional jet fuel. The Air Force plans to test the blend on additional aircraft over the next couple of years. 

 The Pentagon is looking for ways to become more energy independent and is looking at energy alternatives. Under the Air Force’s current energy plan, the goal is to acquire 50 percent of the domestic aviation fuel from an alternative blend by 2016.Terry Yonkers, the assistant secretary of the Air Force says the Air Force goal is to encourage a major shift in fueling aircraft by reducing demand, increasing supply and changing the culture and mindset of our fuel consumption. The Air Force is the largest government user of jet fuel consuming 2.4 billion gallons of jet fuel per year. The A-10 test flight went well with “no problems whatsoever” according to the pilot.

Botanists classify camelina as a weed but farmers have cultivated it as an oilseed crop for centuries. Biofuel companies are promoting the crop as the next big thing in biofuel and have supplied the Air Force and Airlines for test runs.

Alice Pilgeram, Research Professor at Montana State University, works with camelina seeds and is very excited about its potential: “What’s happened in the past 4 years is we’ve gone from a completely new introduction to the U.S. to a rapidly emerging fuel crop.