In one of the leading defense research centers in the USA, Los Alamos National laboratory (LALN), developed to replace traditional fuels for cruise missiles “Tomahawk”. It is based on corn bran.
“Tomahawk” – the most numerous type of cruise missiles in the us military Arsenal, they are used since 1970-ies. Suffice it to say that they are armed with 145 U.S. Navy ships – a total of 4000 cruise missiles.
“Tomahawk” is equipped with turbojet engines Williams International F415 running on hydrocarbon fuel JP-10. In contrast, the new biofuel does not require in the production process the use of harsh acids, making it environmentally friendly.
The fuel is produced from a by-product which is obtained in the manufacture of ethanol from corn. For reference, American farmers annually planted corn area of 90 million acres. (36.5 million ha), which is then used to produce many types of commodities from corn syrup to cattle feed. According to LALN, the replacement of JP-10 with biofuels will reduce the cost of its production by 50 % and create thousands of new jobs in the United States.
Source — LANL
