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Wright-Patterson starts to build alternative fuels plant

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Staff Report Updated 2:01 AM Tuesday, November 10, 2009

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE — The base is starting construction of a facility that can make 15 to 25 gallons a day of fuel from coal and biomass materials, to support efforts by the Air Force Research Laboratory and University of Dayton Research Institute to develop alternative fuels for Air Force planes.

Officials scheduled a ground-breaking ceremony at 2:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 9, on base for what will be known as the Assured Aerospace Fuels Research Facility.

Rhecors General Contractors, of Dayton, has the $2.5 million contract to build it. Construction is to be done in September 2010.

The Air Force Research Laboratory and the university have an ongoing joint research effort intended to provide the Air Force with a reliable, domestic source of fuel that will be an alternative to increasingly expensive, petroleum-based fuel from foreign countries.

The new facility will be designed to produce enough of the experimental fuels for research.

The AFRL has provided a $10 million grant to support the project.

Last month, UDRI hired synthetic fuels chemist Heinz Robota to lead the university’s work with the new fuels facility.

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