[ranndomderr]

Are they really doing that, or was this a joke? Sounds so cool.

From the article...

The Air Force will have its entire fleet certified to fly on biofuels by 2011 and has already flown test flights using a 50-50 mix of plant-based biofuel and jet fuel; the Navy took its first delivery of fuel made from algae this summer. Biofuels can in theory be produced wherever the raw materials, like plants, are available, and could ultimately be made near battlefields. ... which was probably grown in a pond. A photobioreactor is a closed vessel with inputs for water, an algae culture, nutrients (slightly composted sewage), light (either directly or with solar powered red and blue LEDs), and CO2 (thats right, the very "evil pollutant" that plants use for photosynthesis) can produce vegetable oil that can go right in the tank in warm weather, or can be transesterified into biodiesel.



A base doesn't have to be very big before you can start putting these in for power. A nuclear powered tanker could produce it continuously while underway, delivering fuel to mobile formations in the field via vertical convoys.