Williams Tests Coal-based Fuel

Williams International last month completed extended testing of a coal-based, alternative fuel in an FJ44-3 engine. Two thousand gallons of the synthetic fuel powered the turbofan for 118 cycles over 21 hours. According to Williams, the fuel, which was developed by a team at Penn State University with help from Intertek-PARC and Duquesne University, performed well. Engine performance was identical to using jet-A and required no special engine or test cell modifications for the demonstration, the engine maker said.