Heather Willauer

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Heather Willauer
Willauer shows samples of synthetic fuel
Born1974 (age 49–50)
CitizenshipUnited States
Alma materBerry College
University of Alabama
Known forSynthetic fuel from seawater
Scientific career
FieldsAnalytical chemistry
InstitutionsUnited States Naval Research Laboratory

Heather D. Willauer (born 1974) is an American

catalysts required to enable a continuous Fischer–Tropsch process to recombine carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen gases into complex hydrocarbon liquids to synthesize jet fuel
for Navy aircraft.

Especially significant for the Navy is the possibility of maintaining naval air operations in remote areas without depending too much on long-distance transport of jet fuel across oceans. The Navy is also studying the feasibility of constructing on-shore facilities capable of synthesizing kerosene from hydrogen and CO2, both extracted from seawater constituents. Because of the very high electrical power required by water electrolysis to produce considerable amounts of hydrogen, nuclear power plants or ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) are necessary to fuel the industrial installations built on-shore on remote islands close to the sea in strategic locations.

Education

Willauer attended Berry College in Georgia, graduating with a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1996.[1] In mid-1999 she participated in the 11th International Conference on Partitioning in Aqueous Two-Phase Systems, held in Gulf Shores, Alabama.[2] In 2002, she earned a doctorate in analytical chemistry from the University of Alabama, writing her thesis on "Fundamentals of phase behavior and solute partitioning in ABS and applications to the paper industry," the "ABS" an abbreviation for "aqueous biphasic systems".[3] She began working with the NRL as an associate, then in 2004 she advanced to the position of research chemist.[1]

Career

Willauer started researching

catalysts.[4]

Willauer at the NRL

In the 2000s, Willauer began studying methods for extracting CO2 and H2 from seawater, for the purpose of reacting these molecules into hydrocarbons by using the Fischer–Tropsch process.[5] She also investigated modified iron (Fe) catalysts and studied zeolite (nanoporous aluminosilicate) catalyst supports for recombining these molecules into jet fuel.

Previous studies had concluded that CO2, under the form of the bicarbonate anion (HCO3–) dominant (96% mole fraction) in the seawater inorganic carbon species could not be economically removed from seawater.[6] However, by acidifying seawater by means of an adapted electrolysis cell with cation permeable membranes (dubbed a three-chambered electrochemical acidification cell),[7] it is possible to economically convert HCO3– into CO2 at a pH lower than 6 and to increase the extraction yield. In January 2011, the NRL installed a prototype of seawater electrolysis cell at Naval Air Station Key West in Florida.[8]

In 2017, Willauer et al. were granted a patent for a CO2 extraction device from seawater, in the form of an electrolytic-cation exchange module (E-CEM). The E-CEM is seen as a "key step" in the production of synthetic fuel from seawater. Other researchers named in the patent are Felice DiMascio, Dennis R. Hardy, Jeffrey Baldwin, Matthew Bradley, James Morris, Ramagopal Ananth and Frederick W. Williams.[9]

Feasibility of jet fuel synthesis

Willauer et al. (2012) estimated that jet fuel could be synthesized from seawater in quantities up to 100,000 US gal (380,000 L) per day, at a cost of three to six U.S. dollars per gallon.

olefins
that can be used as the building blocks for jet fuel.

Willauer et al. calculated that about 23,000 US gal (87,000 L) of seawater must be driven through the process to obtain the quantities of hydrogen and CO2 necessary to synthesize one gallon of jet fuel.

Seawater was chosen because it contains 140 times more CO2 by volume than the atmosphere, and conventional water electrolysis also yields H2. The equipment for processing seawater is much smaller than that for processing air. Willauer considered that seawater was the "best option" for a source of synthetic jet fuel.[12][13] By April 2014, the Willauer's team had not yet made fuel to the quality standard required for military jets,[14][15] but they were able in September 2013 to use the fuel to fly a radio-controlled model airplane powered by a common two-stroke internal combustion engine.[8]

Because the process requires a considerable input of electrical energy[11] (~ 250 MW electricity mainly for the H2 production by water electrolysis and also to a lesser extent for the CO2 recovery from seawater),[11] it cannot be performed on a large ship, even on a nuclear aircraft-carrier. The installations processing seawater to obtain H2 and CO2 (in fact CO), the two essential ingredients necessary for the Fischer–Tropsch process, must be constructed on-shore, close to the sea, on islands in strategic remote locations (e.g., Hawai, Guam, Diego-Garcia) and powered by a nuclear reactor, or by ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC).

Publications

Papers

Patents

References

  1. ^ a b Larson, Don (June 16, 2013). "Opportunities in Nuclear – Second Annual Ohio State University Nuclear Power Forum, September 19, 2013". Energy from Thorium Foundation. Retrieved June 18, 2014.
  2. ^ "List of Participants" (PDF). Gulf Shores, Alabama: 11th International Conference on Partitioning in Aqueous Two-Phase Systems. June 27 – July 2, 1999. Retrieved June 17, 2014.
  3. ^ Willauer, Heather D. (2002). Fundamentals of phase behavior and solute partitioning in ABS and applications to the paper industry (Thesis). Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama, Department of Chemistry.
  4. PMID 9699992
    .
  5. ^ Parry, Daniel (September 24, 2012). "Fueling the Fleet, Navy Looks to the Seas". Naval Research Laboratory News. Archived from the original on February 3, 2018. Retrieved June 18, 2014.
  6. ^ H.D. Willauer; D.R. Hardy; F. DiMascio; R.W. Dorner; F.W. Williams (2010). "Synfuel from Seawater" (PDF). NRL Review. United States Naval Research Laboratory: 153–154. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 6, 2013. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
  7. ^ a b Szondy, David (September 26, 2012). "U.S. Navy looking at obtaining fuel from seawater". GizMag.
  8. ^ a b Parry, Daniel (April 7, 2014). "Scale Model WWII Craft Takes Flight With Fuel From the Sea Concept". Naval Research Laboratory News. Archived from the original on August 22, 2017. Retrieved June 18, 2014.
  9. ^ Parry, Daniel (October 3, 2017). "NRL Receives US Patent for Carbon Capture Device: A Key Step in Synthetic Fuel Production from Seawater". Naval Research Laboratory. Retrieved July 22, 2020.
  10. ^ Willauer, Heather; Morse, James; Baldwin, Jeffrey. "6.1 New Start: Conversion of CO2 Waste Into Energetic Molecules (FY15-FY19)" (PDF). NRL. Naval Research Laboratory. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 6, 2021. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  11. ^
    S2CID 109523882
    .
  12. ^ Tozer, Jessica L. (April 11, 2014). "Energy Independence: Creating Fuel from Seawater". Armed with Science. U.S. Department of Defense. Archived from the original on April 12, 2014. Retrieved July 10, 2021.
  13. ^ Koren, Marina (December 13, 2013). "Guess What Could Fuel the Battleships of the Future?". National Journal.Closed access icon(password-protected)
  14. ^ Tucker, Patrick (April 10, 2014). "The Navy Just Turned Seawater Into Jet Fuel". Defense One.
  15. ^ Ernst, Douglas (April 10, 2014). "U.S. Navy to turn seawater into jet fuel". The Washington Times.
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