Using Plants Instead of Petroleum to Make Jet Fuel

Chemical engineers in North Dakota have successfully turned oil from plants--canola (rapeseed), coconuts and soybeans--into jet fuel indistinguishable from the conventional kind, according to U.S. government tests. Working with the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), scientists at the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) at the University of North Dakota turned these plant oils into fuel that had a similar density, energy content and even freezing point. [More]

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