Where is the 379th air expeditionary wing

At the risk of over-simplifying the chemistry, this equation also states that if energy is added to a mixture of carbon dioxide and water, it can be turned into fuel and oxygen. In reality, this process is significantly more complicated, and requires an intermediate step, where the carbon dioxide and water are converted into carbon monoxide and hydrogen, commonly referred to as syngas.

Syngas can then be reformed into a variety of fuels, including gasoline, diesel, or jet-fuel. Countries such as South Africa rely heavily on this process for producing automotive fuels from coal. Nellis has the largest solar More than 72, solar panels provide 25 percent of the electricity for the 12, people who live and work at Nellis. The issue arises with how much renewable energy and air would be required for this process to be practical.

In terms of the amount of energy, it would take approximately 28 square meters of standard solar panels to provide enough energy to produce 1 gallon of fuel in a day. This assumes access to direct sunlight and an ideal chemical conversion.

A C transport plane has a fuel capacity of 6, gallons, equating to a solar array that is approximately the size of 38 football fields. Note that the actual size of the solar array would be significantly larger since the conversion process is far from ideal.

The similar process used for converting water to hydrogen fuel is 80 percent efficient; with this chemical process being more complex, a lower efficiency is expected. Indeed, the Navy project leverages the nuclear reactor aboard an aircraft carrier for its seawater to fuel program. Further, the Department of Defense has projects underway for the development of mobile nuclear power options with power up to 5 MW.

Unfortunately, even one of these nuclear reactors running constantly for 24 hours, would only be able to produce half the fuel necessary to fill a C A second issue is the amount of air required for this system. Since carbon dioxide only makes up 0. This equates to million cubic meters of air to fill a C While air is very abundant, a larger issue arises from fouling.

When processing this much air, pollutants in the air can damage the sensitive catalyst materials that extract the carbon dioxide. These issues with the amount of energy and air required are fairly large. Meanwhile, other options are more reasonable, especially synthetic aviation fuel.

These fuels can be generated from a range of sources including waste oils and agricultural products, both of which are readily available around the globe. As the U. Unfortunately, although the generation of jet fuel from air is technically feasible at small levels, production at the scales necessary for the Air Force is not realistic. This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here. More From Forbes. Nov 11, , pm EST. Nov 11, , am EST. Structured data. Captions English Add a one-line explanation of what this file represents.

Description th Air Expeditionary Wing. This image shows a flag , a coat of arms , a seal or some other official insignia produced by the United States Army Institute of Heraldry.

Permission to use these images in the USA for most commercial purposes must be obtained from The Institute of Heraldry prior to their use. You cannot overwrite this file. The following other wikis use this file: Usage on en. Structured data Items portrayed in this file depicts. Namespaces File Discussion. Views View Edit History.