DARPA Eyes Cheaper, Greener Fuel from Coal

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has unveiled an “aggressive” program to demonstrate economical and environmentally friendly conversion of coal-to-liquid (CTL) fuels.

DARPA has issued a broad agency announcement (BAA) soliciting research proposals and plans to award 12-month contracts totaling $4.56 million to demonstrate the feasibility of alternative coal to liquid (CTL) technologies. Already investigating biofuels, the agency says its CTL program is intended to demonstrate processes that could meet Defense Department demand for JP-8 jet fuel from U.S. coal reserves at a cost-competitive price compared with petroleum-based fuels.
DARPA says existing direct and indirect coal liquefaction processes are “extremely expensive to implement, consume large amounts of water and produce unacceptable amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and other pollutants.”

Aviation Week