Heather D. Willauer is an American analytical chemist and inventor working in Washington, D.C., at the United States Naval Research Laboratory. Leading a research team, Willauer has patented a method for removing carbon dioxide from seawater, in tandem with hydrogen removed simultaneously. Willauer is researching catalysts to enable a continuous Fischer–Tropsch process to recombine carbon monoxide and hydrogen gases into complex hydrocarbon liquids to synthesize jet fuel for Navy and Marine aviation, and fuel for the U.S. Navy's ships at sea. The work of Willauer's team of researchers, once the technology is incorporated into the U.S. Navy's warships in the 2020s, is expected to release such ships from their reliance on vulnerable replenishment oilers to give them indefinite time on station. Especially significant is the ability to maintain naval air operations without regular deliveries of jet fuel. A side benefit of the technology is that it will decrease harmful ocean acidification, by removing CO2 from seawater.
Education
Willauer attended Berry College in Georgia, graduating with a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1996. In mid-1999 she participated in the 11th International Conference on Partitioning in Aqueous Two-Phase Systems, held in Gulf Shores, Alabama. In 2002, she earned a doctorate in analytical chemistry from the University of Alabama, writing her thesis on "Fundamentals of phase behavior and solute partitioning in ABS and applications to the paper industry," the "ABS" an abbreviation for "aqueous biphasic systems". She began working with the NRL as an associate, then in 2004 she advanced to the position of research chemist.
Career
Willauer started researching biphasic systems and phase transitions after graduating from Berry College. In 1998 she studied aqueous biphasic systems for the potential of recapturing valuable dyes from textile manufacturing effluent. She investigated ions and catalysts. In the 2000s, Willauer began researching methods for extracting CO2 and H2 from acidified seawater, for the purpose of recombining the molecules as hydrocarbon fuels. She investigated modified iron catalysts for dividing seawater into its component molecules, and she studied zeolite catalysts for recombining the molecules into fuel. Previous studies had concluded that CO2 was too stable to be economically removed from seawater, but by 2010 Willauer had discovered that an iron-based catalyst provided as much as a 50% conversion rate of available CO2 from seawater. In January 2011, the NRL placed a prototype seawater processor at Naval Air Station Key West in Florida, while Willauer continued lab research in Washington. In 2012, Willauer estimated that jet fuel could be synthesized from seawater in quantities up to per day, at a cost of three to six U.S. dollars per gallon. As well, the Navy is interested in using the technology to power its ships. In 2014, Willauer said that the catalyst could be changed to make various fuels such as methanol and natural gas, as well as the olefins that can be used as the building blocks for jet fuel. She said that about of seawater must be driven through the process to result in one gallon of jet fuel. Seawater is the optimum choice because it contains 140 times more CO2 by volume than the atmosphere, and it yields usable amounts of H2 unlike the air. The equipment for processing seawater is much smaller than that for processing air. Willauer said seawater is the "best option" for a source of synthetic jet fuel. By April 2014, Willauer's team had not yet made fuel to the standard required by military jets, but they were able in September 2013 to use the fuel to fly a radio-controlled model airplane powered by a common two-stroke internal combustion engine. Because the process requires a large input of electrical energy, a plausible first step of implementation would be for American nuclear-powered aircraft carriers to manufacture their own jet fuel. The U.S. Navy is expected to deploy the technology some time in the 2020s. In 2017, Willauer was granted a patent for a carbon capture device, in the form of an electrolytic-cation exchange module. The E-CEM is seen as a "key step" in the production of synthetic fuel from seawater. Other researchers named in the patent are Felice DiMascio, Dennis R. Hardy, Jeffrey Baldwin, Matthew Bradley, James Morris, Ramagopal Ananth and Frederick W. Williams.
