By early 2011, the U.S. Air Force wants its entire fleet of bombers, fighters, transports and other aircraft to have the ability to use a domestically produced 50-50 blend of synthetic and petroleum-based fuel, Reuters reports."We can get ourselves very close to a zero carbon footprint," said William Anderson, an assistant Air Force secretary. "Not today. Not tomorrow. But maybe a decade or so down the road."
In fiscal 2006, the service consumed almost 2.6 billion gallons of aviation fuel at a cost of more than $5.7 billion. That's the kind of economic clout as a purchaser could help promote sources of power
Recently, an AC-17 Globemaster cargo aircraft, the military's biggest user of jet fuel, flew for the first time with a coal-derived synthetic blend as the only fuel on board. The jet fuel from coal produced 1.8 times more carbon dioxide between production and consumption as jet fuel from oil, but Anderson said most of that additional amount could be captured during production.
