June 8, 2013

NREL Teams with Navy, Private Industry to Make Jet Fuel from Switchgrass



Project could spur jobs in rural America, lead to less reliance of foreign oil

The Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is partnering with Cobalt Technologies, U.S. Navy, and Show Me Energy Cooperative to demonstrate that jet fuel can be made economically and in large quantities from a renewable biomass feedstock such as switch grass.

“This can be an important step in the efforts to continue to displace petroleum by using biomass resources,” NREL Manager for Bioprocess Integration R&D Dan Schell said. “We’re converting biomass into sugars for subsequent conversion to butanol and then to JP5 jet fuel.”