The United States Air Force is expected this week to urge for greater efforts to develop more environmentally-friendly fuels and take on the issue of global warming.

The USAF is calling on universities, corporations and governments to work together and deduce the emissions produced both by existing fuels, and by those of future years.

Carbon Footprint

According to USAF Assistant Secretary William Anderson, the directive's goal is to work out the total carbon footprint left by global energy sources, as opposed to simply calculating their emissions.

Biofuels

With biofuels having generated degrees of controversy regarding their impact on the environment, Anderson added, a drive was required to make sure the situation could not deteriorate further.

"If you look at the situation with bioethanol from corn, a lot of people saw that as a panacea, but now it seems that if you include the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions, the carbon footprint may be worse than people realised", he said.

"If the world wants to get serious on greenhouse gas emissions, we have to figure out where they're coming from."

The project is set to be talked-over on April 30^th in Washington.

Air force officials have already held discussions with members of the Royal Air Force and the French Air Force on ways to operate with more respect for the environment.

The military, Anderson said in further comments, could follow the examples of airlines, which have looked into how to cut down weight and boost fuel efficiency.

"What everybody sees is the fighter aircraft, but the predominant part of what we do is transporting people and stuff around", he stated, adding: "...so do British Airways, so do Virgin and so do Fed Ex."

Synthetic Fuel

The USAF plans to, ultimately, have its entire fleet powered by synthetic fuel blends. Such a mixture, having first been tested in a B-52 Stratofortress strategic bomber two years ago, recently powered a B1b Lancer to supersonic speeds.

The US is encouraging both the RAF and FAF to adopt a similar measure.

"Energy demand is going to outstrip any gains from renewable", said Anderson.

"As oil starts to diminish, coal is going to play big."

Campaigners for the environment have claimed that the carbon emissions produced by these biofuels are around twice those produced by oil.

According to Anderson, however, a large amount of this pollution could be trapped and kept below the ground.

The USAF, he added, would not change over to this new technology unless it had "...a greener carbon footprint" than the existing generation of fuels

Source - Armed Forces International's US Correspondent

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