Navy targets 2016 for "green" fuel use

By Jeanette Steele

Thursday, February 17, 2011 at midnight

In 2016, the Navy expects to launch an aircraft carrier group — up to six ships — running on “green” fuel. That means an algae blend in ship engines and a version of mustard seed oil for aircraft.

Five years isn’t that far away, given that the Navy hasn’t yet tested the algae fuel blend on the guts of a carrier group: the destroyers, cruisers and supply ships that protect and replenish a nuclear-powered flattop.

The Navy’s energy chief, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Jackalyne Pfannenstiel, was in San Diego on Wednesday and said the sea service is still gung-ho about green “gas,” despite a RAND Corp. study last month that said the Navy’s alternative fuels could not be made commercially viable in the short term and might worsen greenhouse gas emissions.

“We’re moving into larger ships. We’re starting with the small riverine crafts, and we are starting to test the larger ships,” said Pfannenstiel, after a breakfast speech to the San Diego Military Advisory Council.

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus has set a deadline of 2012 to demonstrate that a carrier group can run on a green alternative to marine diesel fuel. And, four years later, to deploy it.

Pfannenstiel said the ships involved have not yet been chosen. They won’t include the Makin Island, the Navy’s first “hybrid” ship — sometimes dubbed the “Prius” of the fleet — which is stationed in San Diego.

“We’re learning from the Makin Island, and so we’ll make whatever improvements we need to,” she said. “I don’t know what the timing is on that.”

Instead, the “green” fuels, which will consist of 50 percent traditional diesel, will go into conventional ship and aircraft engines.

It’s also not decided whether the “green” carrier group will launch from the East Coast or the West Coast, where San Diego is the Navy’s hub.

The Navy successfully tested its mustard seed blend, based on the camelina plant, in an F/A-18 Super Hornet jet in April and in a MH-60 Seahawk helicopter in November.

In October, the algae fuel blend got a spin on the water in a 49-foot riverine boat off Norfolk Naval Station in Virginia.

Pfannenstiel downplayed the RAND study, which concluded that there will be “no direct benefit” to the nation’s military if the Pentagon pushes forward with alternative fuels.

The Navy’s energy chief said those findings were based on old information.

“Industry has moved beyond where it was when the RAND researchers looked at some of the questions,” Pfannenstiel said. “In the past couple of years, there has been an enormous investment in the biofuels sector.”

Her deputy, Thomas Hicks, said this is what he took from the RAND study:

“I think we learned that there are a lot of different opinions out there. And we have to be mindful of that as we go forward in conducting our strategy.”