Green Defence

Published on Wednesday, 15 December 2010 16:06

By Nick Watts

Nick Watts finds out how the defence sector is going green. Troops are now using more natural resources then ever before, but with the soaring cost of fossil fuels eco transport and sustainable fuels could provide the solution to the problem.

Going green

More and more defence contractors are going green. In this context green defence addresses two related areas. Firstly is the need for of an energy intensive military to operate more cheaply and efficiently. Allied to this is the real concern about diminishing hydrocarbons, oil and gas. Secondly is the fact that many of the technologies and modeling tools used by the defence sector lend themselves to examination of the effects of climate change.

The most pressing concern is fuel efficiency. Defence is a thirsty sector; just moving equipment and people requires huge amounts of oil. Static installations run large numbers of computers and related communications equipment. Field hospitals need energy to power operating theatres and intensive care facilities; cook houses too need power.

A recent Dutch study estimated that the energy consumption of a single soldier has increased by 175 per cent in the last 30 years. [1].

Hybrid vehicles in the military

The first phase of going green has seen companies examining more efficient ways of burning fuel and ways of substituting hydrocarbons with biofuels. The next step has seen the exploration of electric drives powered by solar energy, or some forms of hybrid drives. This does not yet work on fast jets, but will find applications in many other areas where this form of propulsion could be applicable.

The imperative to find a greener approach to defence is driven by hard necessity. Jane’s Defence Industry has estimated that in 2007 the US military spent $12.6 billion on fuel costs; the figure for the UK was just over £1 billion.[2]

In the autumn of 2009 the UK’s MOD faced the prospect of cuts in funding for training, which led to a parliamentary rebellion. The reason cited by the MOD for these savings was the fluctuating price of fuel oil, which is traded in dollars, at a time when the pound was weak and the UK’s operational tempo was higher than expected.

As with the civilian motor industry, defence contractors are examining Hybrid systems. Hybrid Electric Drive (HED) is believed to be the technology closest to widespread adoption. This technology will work for buses and taxis so can be used for work in civilian or rear echelon applications. The challenge will be to apply this to combat vehicles.

Aircraft fuel

In the air the situation is different. Oil substitution has begun to be explored by the US Air Force, initially focusing on a technology based on coal derivatives. The Fischer Tropsch process takes advantage of the large indigenous stocks of coal in the US. This has the advantage of being based on hydrocarbons, but the process is very expensive.

Test flights began in 2006. The US has also begun research into the applicability of biomass fuels in the aviation sphere. One attraction of this is that with the increasing use of remotely piloted vehicles, safety considerations need not be as stringent as they are with manned aircraft.

Biofuels are derived from organic matter other than hydrocarbons. These can be sugars, starches, fats and oils. Typically this is soyabeans and palm oil in the case of bio diesel and a similar product, biobutanol was used by the RAF during the Second World War.

The demands of modern aircraft engines are, however, much more stringent. Research continues in this area. The operating parameters of manned flight, both civil and military, are such that the result must be convincing in the case of safety as well as efficiency. It is not yet clear how these potential fuels will perform at high or low temperatures, or what effect they will have on the systems in which they are operating.

Eco maritime

The marine environment has always been at the forefront of new propulsion technology. From steam powered by coal and oil, to electrically driven ships and of course nuclear the drive has been to produce more efficient fuel use. The Type 45 destroyer which incorporates electrically driven machinery is said to represent a 25 percent reduction in fuel consumption over its predecessor.

Nuclear power has also developed a long way since its initial development for naval submarines. Russia has used nuclear propulsion in its civilian ice breaker fleet. However, there has been no widespread adoption of nuclear propulsion in the civil sphere for a variety of reasons related to the costs of de-commissioning.

The adoption of green power will be driven in large part by the price of oil. The key price seems to be $100 per barrel and once this level has been passed and it looks like staying there, some of these experimental processes will be more economically attractive.

Speculation about the global amount of oil remaining also informs opinion about the viability of alternative fuels. However, it is not enough to produce a fuel efficient aircraft engine, it must be safe.

Allied to research into fuel substitution, defence contractors have found themselves lending assistance into climate change modeling. Major contractors such as QinetiQ and Raytheon have become involved in environmental projects. [3] Possessing computers capable of large scale modeling it is relatively easy to simulate climate change effects, or to model rises in sea temperature. Similarly materials technology lends itself to research into lighter or smarter production techniques. At a time of stringency in defence budgets, many contractors are exploring the possibility of putting their research teams into collaborative projects with a green dimension.

 

Footnotes:

[1] – RUSI Defence systems October 2010; “weaning the Netherlands armed forces off their oil dependency” Vettehen and Ross pp 94.

 

[2] - Jane’s Industry Quarterly January 2009.

 

[3] – Financial Times 30^th Oct 2008. “Defence groups enter the green zone” Sylvia Pfeifer.