Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Coal-Biomass to Liquid Jet Fuel Compared to Petroleum-Derived JP-8 Jet Fuel

The United States (U.S.) imported 57 percent of the petroleum products that it consumed in 2008. The Department of Defense (DOD) and in particular, the United States Air Force (USAF), consumes a large amount of oil to support the mission of defending the U.S. According to the USAF energy policy, by 2016, the Air Force (AF) must be prepared to cost competitively acquire 50 percent of its domestic aviation fuel requirement via an alternative fuel blend in which the alternative component is derived from domestic sources produced in a manner that is "greener" than fuels produced from conventional petroleum. This study employed a life cycle assessment (LCA) tool known as Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment (EIO-LCA) to compare the petroleum derived jet fuel of JP-8 to the alternative jet fuel of Coal-Biomass to Liquid (CBTL) to determine which was "greener" by determining the total global warming potential (GWP) over each jet fuels' entire life cycle. The CBTL jet fuel was determined to be "greener" for the environment with utilizing carbon capture and storage (CCS) via the Fischer Tropsch (FT) synthesis process when producing liquid jet fuel from coal and swithchgrass as the biomass.