ARLINGTON, Va. — Air Force engineers have received their first shipment of synthetic fuel to use in tests to see whether the service’s mighty B-52 long-range bomber can fly using an alternative to JP-8 jet fuel, according to Gen. Bruce Carlson, commander of the Air Force Materiel Command.

The goal of the program is to see whether it is possible to convert not only the entire Air Force fleet, but all of the Defense Department’s fuel-powered platforms to run on synthetic fuel, Carlson said Thursday.

Carlson said that “the first truckload of bulk fuel,” a natural gas derivative, was delivered the week of June 19 to Tinker Air Force Base, Okla.

“Over the course of the next few months,” engineers will use the fuel to run tests on dismounted Pratt & Whitney TF33-P-3/103 turbofan engines from the B-52 Stratofortress, he said.

Engineers chose the B-52 as the first test platform for synthetic fuel because the aircraft carries eight power plants, allowing for plenty of room for error in case of failure, Carlson said.

The aircraft also has tanks that allow fuel to be isolated and delivered to a specific engine, which will be useful during the next step of the program after ground-testing the engine: flight tests, which would take place at the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., he said.

If the test flights are successful, the Air Force will start testing the alternative fuel on different aircraft such as the C-135 transport and the T-38 trainer “and move on from there,” Carlson said.

The U.S. military uses 3 billion to 4 billion gallons of fuel per year, according to the Defense Department’s Environmental Security Technology Certification Program. That accounts for approximately 20 percent of the total U.S. aviation fuel use, which includes commercial passenger and cargo flights as well as all military aircraft, program officials said.

The Air Force is DOD’s single largest consumer of fuel, accounting for 41 percent of DOD’s annual consumption, Carlson said.

Alternative fuels have been used before to power military aircraft. South Africa converted its entire military fleet to run on alternative fuels during the energy embargoes of the anti-apartheid era, Carlson said.

The Air Force has a team of consultants working with the South Africa National Defense Force to discuss that country’s conversion project and its applicability to the U.S. military, Carlson said.

Why doesn't India have something like this, considering the Defence is the largest consumer of fuel?