B-52 WILL TEST SYNTHETIC FUEL.

Byline: JIM SKEEN Staff Writer

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE -- As the U.S. military looks to make sure its planes, tanks and trucks will keep running if America's oil imports were cut off, an Air Force B-52 bomber will be put to work testing a synthetic fuel made from natural gas.

The effort uses a synthesizing process developed by two German researchers in the 1920s and used by petroleum-short Germany to help keep its Nazi war machine running during World War II. But for years, it was deemed too expensive to compete with conventional fuels -- until the recent run-up in oil prices.

``The time is probably right to produce that fuel,'' said Bill Harrison, chief of the Air Force Research Laboratory Propulsion Directorate turbine-engine division fuels branch.

The Edwards flight test work is part of a Pentagon effort, started in 2001, called the Assured Fuel Initiative. The idea is to ensure an energy supply regardless of uncertainty in oil-producing countries or problems spurred by natural disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina's damage last year to Gulf Coast oil refineries.

The Air Force alone consumes 3.2 billion gallons of fuel annually, accounting for about 80 percent of the federal government's fuel usage.

Engineers expect the so-called Fischer-Tropsch fuel -- named for the two German researchers who developed the process -- will have the same performance as regular jet fuel, but with less pollution because it contains less sulfur than regular fuels.

The fuel the Edwards B-52 will use is being produced by an Oklahoma company called Syntroleum Corp., which has a plant that produces 70 barrels a day of Fischer-Tropsch fuels.

The Defense Department is interested in getting up to 200 million gallons of synthetic fuel in 2008.

Plans call for conducting three flight tests with the Fischer-Tropsch fuel. The fuel will be used in two of the airplane's eight jet engines.

``We're going to do a flight profile and look at performance points for the aircraft,'' Harrison said. ``We'll also measure emissions.''

Before the flight tests can begin, the engines will be equipped with measurement instruments. About two weeks of engine test runs on the ground will be done, followed by the flight tests, also likely to be over a two-week period.

james.skeen(at)dailynews

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(color) A B-52 Stratofortress touches down on Edwards' main runway June 12 to begin testing of a synthetic fuel.

U.S. Air Force