An economic basis for littoral land-based production of low carbon fuel from nuclear electricity and seawater for naval or commercial use

Three separate U.S. military databases were used to estimate the U.S. Navy operational fuel needs at sea for the last several years. Defense Science Board data were used to estimate the current FY2013 total fuel delivered-at-sea price being paid by the USN per gallon between $6 and $7. Using published capital cost data and a range of nuclear electrical energy scenarios, costs ranging between $1.48 to $8.67 per gallon are estimated for producing 82,000 gal per day of fuel in littoral land-based locations. This provides policy analysts with a reasonable economic rationale and justification for planning and designing a new littoral land-based energy conversion process to provide low carbon jet and diesel fuel for operations at sea. This process is considered low carbon emissions because it uses environmentally available carbon and hydrogen and dedicated nuclear electrical energy as its only inputs. Generic naval missions and fuel usage data provide the constraints needed for establishing full scale process size, number of locations, power requirements, and cost using current light water nuclear reactor technology. This information may also be used by policy analysts to support changes in future naval energy policy. -- Highlights: •A cost/benefit analysis for synthesizing low carbon fuel in strategic littoral locations is provided. •Different nuclear electrical energy scenarios are used for synthesizing low carbon fuel. •The analysis suggests that low carbon fuel could be synthesized for $1.48–8.67/gal. •This analysis may be used to justify replacing at sea fossil fuel use by the U.S. Navy. •The analysis provides broad constraints for establishing full scale fuel synthesis processes