Americas News
U.S. Navy to Launch Biofuel Bunker Powered Carrier Strike Group
In an effort to reduce dependence on foreign oil, the U.S. Navy is launching a carrier strike group that will be partly powered by biofuel, local media reports.
The navy is said to have originally aimed for a 50/50 ratio between biofuel and traditional fuel in 2010, but the current low cost of oil means that most of the carrier strike group's ships will run on a 10 percent biofuel mix.
The federal government is understood to have invested more than $500 million in drop-in biofuels - so called as they can be seamlessly used alongside, and blended with, traditional fossil fuels.
While the Navy is calling the move a milestone, some critics argue that large scale biofuel production is too costly and may do more harm than good.
"Biofuels sound good, but it turns out that making carbohydrates (biomass) into hydrocarbons (ideal fuels) is a very laborious and wasteful process that is far more costly and much harder on the environment than producing fossil fuels," said Retired Navy Captain Todd "Ike" Keifer.
The U.S. Navy is said to be still aiming to get half its power from alternative energy sources by 2020.
Since 2008, the Navy is reported to have reduced its oil consumption by 15 percent, while the Marine Corps has reduced their oil consumption by 60 percent.
Nevertheless, Jesse Ausubel, an environmental scientist at The Rockefeller University in New York City, has said there was still more that could be done.
"There are many ways that the fleet could become truly greener -- through more efficient propulsion, for example," he said.
Earlier this week, Dirk Kronemeijer, CEO, GoodFuels Marine outlined in a Ship & Bunker Industry Insight piece a "crucial role" for biofuels in a low emission future for shipping.
