Compact and Mobile Biofuels Production System for Forward Sites

To support tactical fuel requirements at forward sites, biomass wastes from operations and those locally available need to be converted into viable military fuels. Conventional approaches cannot produce military type fuels using compact and mobile reactors. Through recent efforts, Altex and PSU have identified a novel approach that can achieve the conversion of mixed biomass wastes to a JP-8-type fuel in a compact and mobile platform. Preliminary tests have shown the potential of the concept and the needed components have been integrated on two mobile trailers to allow testing in the field. Under the proposed Phase I project, the concept will be adapted to the Army biomass waste to military fuel application of interest; and the performance and cost benefits of the concept will be determined versus alternative techniques. In support of this assessment effort, a subscale test article will be built and tested. These efforts will show the feasibility of the concept for Army biofuels applications of interest.