Accelergy Corporation, an advanced coal-to-liquids company, has formed a strategic partnership with the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) at the University of North Dakota. Under the terms of a new agreement, Accelergy will license EERC’s proprietary technology as part of its Coal Biomass to Liquids (CBTL) process to accelerate the development of specialty liquid jet fuels used by the military from non-petroleum sources.

With the capabilities to produce a cleaner, non-petroleum-based fuel that exceeds JP-8 specs, Accelergy utilizes proprietary micro-catalytic conversion technologies licensed from Exxon Mobil Research and Engineering Company. Accelergy’s integrated CBTL process domestically produces a tunable range of fuels including premium gasoline, diesel, Jet-A, and military JP-5, JP-8, and JP-9 jet fuels.

The CBTL process maintains a high overall thermal efficiency while significantly reducing the greenhouse gas emissions associated with comparable refining methods.

In October, Accelergy and A2BE Carbon Capture LLC, an algae photobioreactor company, formed the Carbon Cycle Technology Alliance to commercialize a platform for Integrated Carbon to Liquids (ICTL) fuel production technologies that incorporates recycling of process CO2 using algal biomass to produce additional fuel production feedstock. The companies made the announcement at the 3rd Algae Biomass Summit in San Diego.  

In July, EERC was awarded a subcontract by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) to help produce renewable jet fuel from algae. That effort is being funded by the US Department of Defense’s (DoD) Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and is a continuation of the first successful production of 100% renewable fuel for the US military by the EERC.