Biofuels & novel fuels News
Below are links to stories about aviation biofuels.
British Airways + Solena plant to make jet fuel from London’s rubbish – announcement soon?
GreenAir online gives an update on the anticipated biofuel plant (costing around $500 million) to be built in east London, to produce diesel and jet fuel. GreenAir says that according to British Airways’ a 20-acre (8ha) site has been selected for its GreenSky project with Solena and an announcement is expected within weeks. Getting the required planning permission had proved “extremely challenging." GreenSky will convert around 600,000 tonnes of London municipal waste into 50,000 tonnes of biojet and 50,000 tonnes of biodiesel annually, and will - they hope - meet BA’s total fuel needs at London City Airport. BA hope they can claim annual carbon savings of up to 145,000 tonnes of CO2. “It’s very much a demonstration plant for us. If we can prove this works commercially then we will build a number of them in the UK – potentially up to six – at this scale or even bigger." “The economics is driven by a current UK landfill tax of about £80 per tonne, so the scheme hopes to get the rubbish cheaply - saving councils the landfill tax. Under its 10-year contract with Solena, BA will purchase all the fuel produced by the plant. They hope to start building in early 2015 and start producing fuel in 2017.
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Heathrow Terminal 2 to be powered by woodchip biomass – with dubious and extravagant “green” claims
Heathrow airport, and the planes that fly to and from it, is one of the highest emitters of carbon in the country. Its emissions are larger than several smaller countries. Yet the airport is now trying to be "green" by doing various things to reduce the emissions in the airport itself. The latest is having a biomass boiler for its Terminal 2 which is part of a green-washing campaign, with the airport trying to overcome its negative environmental impacts. Heathrow claim this will be the "UK’s biggest biomass boiler, and that it will cut the airport's CO2 emissions by 34% against 1990 levels (the Terminal was not built then ...). The boiler is meant to provide 2MW of electricity, hot water and cooling for data centres, and save up to "13,000 tonnes of CO2" per year. Heathrow says Woodchip supplier LG Energy won the 15-year contract with Heathrow on the condition that it would provide all of the biomass from a 100-mile radius around the airport. Some 75% of it will come from just 50 miles away, including from London’s Wetlands Centre in Barnes, as well as Richmond Park. LG Energy claims the sale of the timber is enabling more conservation work to be done, so benefiting more habitat and more biodiversity. Biomass, on a large scale, not carefully, locally sourced is likely to be very far from sustainable.
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China’s CAAC has granted Sinopec a license allowing aviation biofuel to be made from rapeseed, palm oil & soybean oil
China's oil refiner, Sinopec, has been given a license allowing commercial use of its aviation biofuel by airlines. There was a biofuel test flight in 2013 using fuel made from from hydrotreated palm oil and recycled cooking oil. Sinopec said it can now produce bio-jet fuel from a wide range of raw material feedstock, including rapeseed oil, palm oil and soybean oil ( which competes with human and animal food). Sinopec started research on aviation biofuel in 2009, and its application for commercial use was accepted by CAAC in early 2012. Sinopec can produce 3,000 tonnes of the fuel per year, from rape seed, cotton seed and waste cooking oil. The company is considering joining with private enterprise in planting, collecting and processing these source oils, as well as getting waste cooking oil from McDonald's. Sinopec claims their biofuels generate 45% less CO2 than conventional fuels. China is the world's largest oil importer and 58.1% of its 2013 came from imports.China is now the 2nd largest consumer of aviation fuel, consuming nearly 20 million tonnes per year. Its jet fuel demand is estimated to be expanding by 10% every year, while the global average is less than 5%. The production costs of aviation biofuel remain at least 2 - 3 times those of crude oil.
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Boeing hoping to convert “green” diesel into jet fuel and BIOJet Abu Dhabi launched to produce UAE jet biofuels
Boeing is now aiming to use biofuels currently put into so-called "green" diesel into aircraft fuel. One Boeing official called the revelation a "major breakthrough" in the industry's quest to wean itself off fossil fuels and reduce CO2 emissions. It is, in reality, nothing of the sort. Immense amounts of biofuel are already grown, most of it competing with food crops, to put into road vehicle engines. There will not be sufficient land area on which to feed humanity, as well as its road vehicles, and now aviation getting into the act, in order to get some "green" PR benefits. Boeing says "Unlike some other alternative fuels, green diesel is already being produced on a relatively large scale and, with current government subsidies, is cost-competitive with traditional jet fuel, called Jet-A." In practice all sources of oils and fats which could genuinely be classed as sustainable have alternative markets already. If aviation takes these, the other users will be forced to use less "sustainable" fuels through knock-on effects. In addition a new initiative to support an aviation biofuel industry in the United Arab Emirates, BIOjet Abu Dhabi, has been announced one day after Etihad Airways conducted a demonstration flight with a Boeing 777 powered in part by the first UAE-produced biokerosene from an unspecified "innovative plant biomass-processing technology."
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Branson keen to get jet biofuels from waste CO2 – though it could be put to other, non aviation, uses
LanzaTech has a joint venture facility in China, which is aiming to produce future supplies of biofuel for its partner airline, Virgin Atlantic. LanzaTech has a patented fermentation technology that transforms CO or CO2 gases generated by the steel industry into bioethanol, using GM "proprietary"micro-organisms - algae. The bioethanol can then be converted into jet fuels, and other platform chemicals. The waste CO2 could alternatively be used to produce plastics, or fuels for road vehicles, or animal feed. Aviation fuel is only one of the options. Waste CO2 from factories, power stations etc could also be ducted to greenhouses and used to boost production of vegetables and other foods, as well as using the waste heat. Richard Branson and others have been keen to promote this waste CO2 as a "low carbon" fuel for the aviation industry in future. However, it would appear that this waste CO2 could perfectly well be put to other uses, and indeed, diverting it to aviation prevents it being used to produce animal food, which in turn would produce human food. The Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB) has certified LanzaTech’s joint biofuel venture facility in China, and Richard Branson has said the LanzaTech process is "a major breakthrough in the war on carbon."
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Boeing & South African Airways partnership for future aviation biofuels
Boeing has signed an agreement with South African Airways (SAA) to launch development of a "sustainable" aviation biofuel chain in Southern Africa - the first in Africa. They are looking to research new developments in technology that they believe will enable the conversion of biomass into jet fuel, which they hope will reduce aviation CO2 emissions. The new partnership will research "feedstocks and other organic sources" (they do not say what - but unlikely to be jatropha as banned in SA) in South Africa to begin developing a biofuel supply chain for airlines within the region, but there is no projected date when the first fuel might be produced. Boeing and SAA say new developments in technology will enable the conversion of biomass into jet fuel in a more sustainable manner without competing with other sectors for food and water resources. "The World Wildlife Fund-South Africa will monitor and ensure compliance to sustainability principles that would ensure that fuel is sustainable and would lead to genuine carbon reductions."
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EADS and Rolls Royce considering the concept of a hybrid electric-biofuel plane ??
EADS (European aerospace, defence etc) and Rolls Royce say they are developing the concept of the first “hybrid” airliner propelled by a combination of electricity, and algae- derived biofuel. They claim it would produce 75% less CO2 than a conventional airliner, and work in a similar way to hybrid cars, such as the Prius. While all electric planes would not be able, at best, to carry a couple of passengers, there might be the potential for hybrid planes to carry more. EADS' “E-Thrust” project would give the plane propulsion by 6 electric fans along the back of its wings. Its engine (using liquid fuel, perhaps biofuel) would generate electrical power, which would be stored in a large lithium battery [the sort that caused the Dreamliner such problems with overheating] in the aircraft’s fuselage. The aim is for the plane to use liquid fuel plus battery power to take off and climb, and then for the battery to get some charge back while cruising. The plane would then glide in to land, generating more electrical energy to top up the battery for the extra power it will need for the landing. Many decades ahead, if it works at all? .
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Total and Amyris working on jet fuel from GM yeasts using sugarcane – demo flight at Paris Air Show
In France, Amyris and Total announced a demonstration flight (from Toulouse to Paris) of an A321 at the Paris Air Show using its renewable jet fuel made from Amyris Biofene from plant sugars. This is a French Initiative for Future Aviation Fuels, which seeks to produce and commercialize alternative, allegedly renewable and sustainable aviation fuels in France. There was an earlier flight using this fuel in June 2012, in Brazil. Amyris is using genetically-modified yeasts which metabolise sugars from sugarcane or sweet sorghum for the process, which produces a broad range of molecules via Biofene. Cellulosic sugars are what they want to use in future, but for now, Amyris is focused on cane sugar. (ie. competing with human food). There is evidence that the cost of oil-based jet fuel is rising faster than the cost of sugar. If there is margin of around 24 US cents per gallon between the cost of the sugar feedstock and the fuel it might be profitable to use sugar. They are hoping this will continue in future. In December 2012, Amyris began commercial production of Biofene at its industrial-scale production facility in southeastern Brazil. Amyris and Total expect the fuel might be commercially available by 2014.
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Siemens & LanzaTech to develop fuel from CO2 & CO from steel industry gases
The iron and steel industry worldwide produces huge volumes of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide - around 6.7% of global CO2 emissions. Siemens has announced that it will work to develop biofuels from these waste industrial gases after signing a 10-year cooperation deal with New Zealand technology company LanzaTech. They say they will commercialise and market the system for the steel industry. The process captures the CO and CO2 and uses these through a patented biological fermentation to produce chemicals including bioethanol and fuels. The companies hope their technique makes good use of the waste gases, as well as helping steel mills to meet environmental regulations. They claim fuels made from the waste gases will have CO2 emissions 50 - 70% lower than fossil based fuels. LanzaTech says the process does not compete with food production - (but could the waste CO2 not be used in greenhouses etc in order to promote growing of food crops?). Virgin wants to fly a demonstration flight on this during 2013 and then more in 2014.
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Open letter to MEPs from civil society groups and NGOs calls for a change in EU biofuels policy
A large number of European environmental organisations have written an open letter to MEPs (Members of the European Parliament) asking them to make crucial changes to the EU biofuels policy. The policy is not only failing in its basic objective of cutting CO2 emissions from Europe's transport, but is also costing governments and taxpayers €10 billion in support every year. The letter says instead EU biofuel policy exacerbates land grabs, deforestation, hunger and poverty. It questions how it can be justified to support this ineffective policy with so much public money. The letter asks MEPs to halt the expansion of land-based biofuels in transport; to fully account for the lifetime carbon emissions of biofuels, including their indirect land use impacts; and to phase out subsidies and public support for environmentally damaging biofuels. Airlines are interested in using more biofuel, though flights so far using oils that have competing human food use have been minimal.