Heather Willauer

Willauer attended Berry College in Georgia, graduating with a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1996.[1] In mid-1999 she participated in the 11th International Conference on Partitioning in Aqueous Two-Phase Systems, held in Gulf Shores, Alabama.[2] 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".[3] She began working with the NRL as an associate, then in 2004 she advanced to the position of research chemist.[1]

Willauer started researching biphasic systems and phase transitions after graduating from Berry College. In 1998 she studied aqueous biphasic systems (ABS) for the potential of recapturing valuable dyes from textile manufacturing effluent. She investigated ions and catalysts.[4]

Willauer at the NRL

In the 2000s, Willauer began researching methods for extracting CO₂ and H₂ from acidified seawater (seawater having a pH value below 6), for the purpose of recombining the molecules as hydrocarbon fuels.[5] She investigated modified iron (Fe) catalysts for dividing seawater into its component molecules, and she studied zeolite (nanoporous aluminosilicate) 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.[6] 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.[7]

In 2012, Willauer estimated that jet fuel could be synthesized from seawater in quantities up to 100,000 US gal (380,000 L) per day, at a cost of three to six U.S. dollars per gallon.[8][9] As well, the Navy is interested in using the technology to power its ships.[10] 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 23,000 US gal (87,000 L) 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.[11][12] By April 2014, Willauer's team had not yet made fuel to the standard required by military jets,[13][14] 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.[7] Because the process requires a large input of electrical energy, a plausible first step of implementation would be for American nuclear-powered aircraft carriers (the Nimitz-class and the Gerald R. Ford-class) to manufacture their own jet fuel.[15] The U.S. Navy is expected to deploy the technology some time in the 2020s.[11]

In 2017, Willauer was granted a patent for a carbon capture device, in the form of an electrolytic-cation exchange module (E-CEM). 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.[16]