Alpha-Pinene | Alternative Fuels
Alpha-Pinene | Alternative Fuels
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Can genetically modified pine trees produce tactical jet fuel?
Can genetically modified pine trees produce tactical jet fuel?
Business Rationale
Business Rationale
Back when crude oil was over $100/barrell, everyone was looking for a better way to produce fuel. While come fuel like gasoline seems expensive, it is nothing compared to "high density" fules used in military aviation and propulsion of rockets for civilian and military purposes... So we were interested in a business opportunity:
The combined military, commercial, and private jet fuel consumption in the U.S. is approximately fifty million gallons per day. At an average of cost of $25/gallon the total expenditure on for jet fuel in the U.S. is approximate $1.3 billion dollars per day. This wide divergence in costs between standard automotive fuels at $4-5/gallon versus jet fuel at $25/gallon generates an examination of factors resulting in this large variation in costs between automotive and jet fuel and the possible implementation of new processes that can be incorporated into jet fuel production.
The investigations and outcomes proposed for this project include:
1. Research and discovery of new, cost efficient jet fuel components to substantially reduce jet fuel costs.
2. Modification of jet fuel processing and production techniques to substantially reduce jet fuel costs.
3. Development of renewable resources for jet fuel manufacturing to drastically reduce dependence on imported and domestic fossil fuels.
4. Reduction of the negative environmental consequences and associated costs resulting from combustion of petroleum products which produce increasing quantities of greenhouse gas emissions.
Working on this project gave me the opportunity to work with university administrators, chemists, research scientists and forestry professionals across Southern US. It also demonstrated how multiple stakeholders need to bring resources to the table to ensure a project can gain traction. Unfortunately for us, oil prices did not stay that high for too long - once the prices started falling below $80 per barrell, interest in the project waned and we had to pivot.
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