Albemarle to upgrade Cobalt n-butanol into jet fuel for Navy

In California, the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division China Lake announced a contract award to Albemarle Corporation, a leading specialty chemicals company, to complete its first biojet fuel production run based on bio n-butanol provided by Cobalt Technologies, a leading developer of next generation bio n-butanol.   For this production run, Albemarle will use NAWCWD technologies to process Cobalt’s bio n-butanol into renewable jet fuel at its Baton Rouge, La. processing facility.

Funded by the NAWCWD, this initial manufacturing contract by Albemarle kicked-off in February 2012.  Upon completion, the resulting jet fuel will be tested by the U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center – Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) as a continuing process for military certification through the Department of Defense.  Once this testing is completed, larger production runs will be undertaken to continue with flight testing.