Camelina Biodiesel as Jet Fuel

A test flight at the Patuxent Naval Station in Maryland has been conducted using camelina-based biodiesel by  the U.S. Navy. Scott Johnson, president of the Montana-based company Sustainable Oils, which provided the camelina biodiesel to the Navy, says the flight in an F18 that has been dubbed the "Green Phantom" because it was flying on biofuels was very successful..

"Fifty percent of the fuel on board was camelina-based HRJ5, which is the Navy's jet fuel that we produced under contract for them," Johnson said. "Everything went very well; they go up to Mach 1.2."

Johnson says the pilots later told the Secretary of the Navy that they couldn't tell any difference between the Camelina mixture and regular jet fuel. The test was part of the Navy's initiative on energy security and renewable energy.

Properties of Kerosene

The word Kerosene was registered as a trademark by Abraham Gesner in 1854 and for several years only the North American Gas Light Company and the Downer Company (to which Gesner had granted the right) were allowed to call their lamp oil kerosene. It eventually became a genericized trademark. Kerosene is widely used to power jet-engined aircraft (jet fuel) and some rockets, but is also commonly used as a heating fuel and for fire toys such as poi.

The heat of combustion of Kerosene is similar to that of diesel: its lower heating value is around 18,500 Btu/lb, or 43.1 MJ/kg, and its higher heating value is 46.2MJ/kg.

Kerosene is a thin, clear liquid formed from hydrocarbons, with density of 0.78-0.81g/cm³. Kerosene is obtained from the fractional distillation of petroleum between 150 °C and 275 °C, resulting in a mixture of carbon chains that typically contain between 6 and 16 carbon atoms per molecule. The flash point of kerosene is between 37 and 65 °C (100–150 °F) and its autoignition temperature is 220 °C (428 °F). Kerosene is insoluble in water (cold or hot), but miscible in petroleum solvents.

Special Uses of Kerosene

Kerosene is widely used to power jet-engined aircraft (jet fuel) and some rockets, but is also commonly used as a heating fuel and for fire toys such as poi. The heat of combustion of Kerosene is similar to that of diesel: its lower heating value is around 18,500 Btu/lb, or 43.1 MJ/kg, and its higher heating value is 46.2MJ/kg. Besides its use in heating, lighting and transportation purposes it can also be used in some execptional cases such as pesticides, solvent and lubrication etc. Some of these uses are listed below:

• Liquid pesticides have traditionally used kerosene or some other petroleum distillate as a carrier, though water has recently begun to replace kerosene 
• Kerosene has also been found effective in killing bed bugs upon direct spray.
  
• Kerosene has been used to treat pools of standing water to prevent mosquitoes from breeding, notably in the yellow fever outbreak of 1905 in New Orleans.
  
• It can be used to remove lice from hair, but this practice is painful and potentially very dangerous. Also, this practice removes all natural oils and fats from the scalp.
  
• Since kerosene is chemically stable, it is used to store substances with redox tendencies within to prevent unwanted reactions, such as alkali metals.
  
• It is used in the packaging and storing of white phosphorus to prevent contact with oxygen, which would lead to immediate combustion.
  
• Kerosene can be used to store crystals. When a hydrated crystal is left in air, dehydration may occur slowly. This makes the colour of the crystal become dull. Kerosene can keep air from the crystal.
  
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  It is used as a solvent.
  
  
  • Kerosene can be applied topically to hard-to-remove mucilage or adhesive left by stickers on a glass surface (such as in show windows of stores).
    
  • Kerosene can be used to remove candle wax that has dripped onto a glass surface; it is recommended that the excess wax be scraped off prior to applying kerosene via a soaked cloth or tissue paper.  
  • Kerosene can be used to clean bicycle and motorcycle chains of old lubricant before relubrication.
    
  
  
• It can be used in conjunction with cutting oil as a thread cutting and reaming lubricant. When machining aluminium and its alloys, kerosene on its own is an excellent cutting lubricant.
  
• Military Applications—used to make "napalm-like" incendiary devices—as reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune
  
• Kerosene-based diluent is commonly used as a component of the organic solvent in SX/EW copper refining.
  
• Hydrotreated kerosene can be used as a starting material to produce high purity linear paraffins which are subsequently dehydrogenated to linear olefins, and when the latter are reacted with benzene in the presence of a catalyst result in the production of linear alkyl benzene.
  
• Kerosene is used as a lubricant for the cutting of glass. It prevents chipping of the glass as the cutting tool is drawn along the surface and it prevents the surface of the glass from resealing along the scored line which would cause an even and jagged cut.