Biofuels for Jet and Military Fuel Markets to be Produced from Animal Fat and Vegetable Oils

Tyson Foods and Syntroleum  (a synthetic fuels production company) in the United States, have announced a joint venture to produce “ ultra-clean synthetic biofuels” for diesel, jet and military fuel markets.  The joint venture company, called “Dynamic Fuels LLC” will harness Syntroleum’s expertise in synthetic fuels technology using feedstocks (animal fat, grease and vegetable oil) provided by Tyson Foods.  The “synthetic biofuel” production will involve a two stage process.  In the first stage, the feedstock (i.e., vegetable oils/animal fat) is gasified by thermal treatment into “synthesis gas”, which is a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen.  In the second stage, the synthesis gas is transformed into the liquid hydrocarbon fuel through a conversion process called “Fischer Tropsch” synthesis.  The joint venture is reported to be the first Biomass-to-Liquid facility to be constructed, with a target annual production of 284 million liters.  Initial facility construction is expected in 2008, somewhere in the south central area of the United States.

Related Link:
More information about the Fischer Tropsch process from Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer-Tropsch_process