Biofuels & novel fuels News
Below are links to stories about aviation biofuels.
Airbus and EADS join Chinese venture to develop algae-based jet fuels, with demo flight planned for 2013
Airbus, EADS Innovation Works and Chinese bio-energy company ENN have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to work together in assessing the potential for developing alternative aviation fuels based on microalgae oils produced in China. The scope of the collaboration includes technical qualification of such fuels and to promote their use for aviation in China, which has one of the world’s fastest growing aviation markets. ENN says it is able to produce more than 10 tons of algae-based oil per year. They plan to have test flights in 2013 using oil supplied by ENN and afterwards look to scale up the alternative fuel production process to produce more. They will also be developing tools to assess the environmental, economic and societal impact of the technology. EADS claims that algae, fed on waste CO2 from power plants, can be grown on poor quality land using non-potable or salt water, so their cultivation does not compete with food production. And ENN says a hectare of microalgae could process 15,000 to 80,000 litres of oil. [But there are huge scalability problems].
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Gulfstream private jets flown on 50% biojet fuel made from Camelina grown in US
Gulfstream have flown 5 private jets from Savannah, Georgia to Orlando, Florida, using 50% biofuel - called Honeywell Green Jet Fuel - made from camelina supplied by Honeywell’s UOP. The fuel was a 50/50 blend with conventional kerosene. Honeywell says that camelina is an inedible plant grown in the US northwest where it is rotated with wheat and other cereal crops. Based on life-cycle analysis studies, Honeywell claims its camelina-based fuel "burn 68 % fewer CO2 emissions than petroleum-based jet fuel." quote. They also claim that "Depending on the feedstock, the fuel can offer between a 65 and 85% reduction in GHG emissions." Honeywell’s UOP Renewable Jet Fuel process technology was originally developed in 2007 under a contract from the US military to produce renewable military-grade jet fuel for the US military. Camelina does not appear to be free of problems, however. There may be reduced yield of wheat when grown in rotation with camelina. There is likely to be a need to fertilise the crop, to get an economic yield. It will not grow without enough water, so unless there is enough rain, it could need some irrigation. And so on.
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Canada claims world’s first 100% biofuel-powered civil jet flight
The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) has flown the first civil jet powered by 100% unblended biofuel. The plane used was a Falcon 20, which is private jet that can carry 8 - 14 people, and it flew over Ottawa. The distance it flew is not stated. A 2nd aircraft, tailed the Falcon in flight and collected information on the emissions generated by the biofuel, which will be analysed. The drop-in fuel was produced using AgrisomaResonance Energy Feedstock, a dedicated industrial oilseed that was launched at commercial scale in 2012 across a broad region of western Canada. Resonance Energy Feedstock produces this industrial oil - produced from genetically modified Brassica carinata - which they say is a non-food oil. They don't actually say its growing does not compete with producing food. To date, flights on biofuels have been restricted to a 50% blend with petroleum.
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Growing Biofuels on “Surplus” Land May Be Harder Than Estimated
Degraded or marginal lands may not be able to productively support the growth of biofuel crops, contrary to previous reports. Biofuels companies hope that surplus land, or land unused in either conservation or agricultural production, offers an elegant solution to the food versus fuel arguments that have plagued bioenergy. The problem, according to a new study in the journal BioRisk, is that the productive capacity of known surplus lands may be greatly overestimated. It is necessary to ascertain "who's living on the land, who's working on the land, what ecosystems services you're dealing with -- we might find out there's a whole lot of land we just can't convert into anything else." Availability of water, soil quality, conservation requirements, GHG emssions from disturbed soils and existing habitation or other human use are all factors that need to be taken into consideration -- and have sometimes been ignored -- when designating marginal land for the production of biofuel.Even hearty species like switchgrass and miscanthus tend to yield less biomass when planted in nutrient-poor or degraded soil.
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Boeing executive: Industry ‘begging’ for biofuels – they need quality and quantity
A Boeing executive has said the global aviation industry is actively seeking to incorporate biofuels in its aircraft. The airline industry is “begging” for biofuels and is committed to using them in their fleets. He was speaking at the Ag Innovation Showcase in St. Louis. He said his industry is a market just waiting for people biofuel producers to scale their products up, and if they can produce these fuels in large amounts, aviation will buy them. Airlines are having to reduce their carbon footprint and one means to do this is the use of biofuels. Boeing said the world’s fleet of 20,000 commercial aircraft is expected to grow to 40,000 in 20 years. That is likely to bring the % of aviation CO2 emissions to 4% (probably more) out of the global anthropogenic CO2 total. The industry is aware that CO2 emissions are a problem for their unfettered growth. The industry can only grow hugely if it can make some efficiency improvement, find a magic bullet in biofuels, or trade carbon permits with other sectors. Boeing hopes biofuels will halve aviation's CO2 emissions by 2050. (Not very likely).
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European Commission weakens biofuel rule changes by excluding ILUC factors
The European Commission has watered down proposals to reduce the indirect climate impact of biofuels (ILUC). This means fuel suppliers will not, as originally planned, be held accountable for the ILUC biofuels cause by displacing food production into new areas, resulting in forest clearance and peatland draining. "The 5% limit is still in, but the ILUC factors are now purely for reporting purposes and not part of the sustainability accounting rules for biofuels." The plan to limit the use of crop-based biofuels to 5% of total EU transport energy demand by 2020 represents a virtual halving of the EU's existing goal for a 10% share of renewables by 2020. Fuel suppliers will be free to continue blending biodiesel made from rapeseed, palm oil and soybeans into their fuels and claiming credit for cutting emissions, despite EU scientific studies showing that overall emissions from biodiesel are higher than fossil fuel.
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Canadian researchers to carry out first test flight to use 100% jet biofuel from GM Brassica carinata
GreenAir reports that a joint initiative involving the National Research Council of Canada is working on the first-ever civil aircraft flight to use 100% unblended jet biofuel, which is under the brand name ReadiJet, A twin-engined Falcon 20 aircraft belonging to NRC will use fuel derived from Canadian-grown Brassica carinata supplied by Agrisoma Biosciences. They say this is a non-food crop which is grown on the Canadian southern Prairies. It appears that Brassica carinata is being genetically modified to produce the oils wanted for jet fuel. More than 40 commercial growers in Western Canada were contracted this year to grow over 6,000 acres (2,400ha) of the crop that will be used to create the fuel for the engine performance and emissions flight testing. In April a test flight used 1% of this fuel. They say the crop is grown on marginal ground in the brown soil zone regions of western Canada.
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Lufthansa turns to algae and municipal solid waste as sources of jet biofuel
In a long and detailed article, with customary thoroughness, Green Air examines what is happening with Lufthansa and jet biofuel. While Solena has still not announced progress on building a plant in east London to produce jet fuel from London's municipal waste for BA, it is progressing in Germany. There are plans in the Schwedt/Oder region of eastern Germany to build a Solena facility, using waste from landfills and incinerators. They hope to convert more than 520,000 tonnes of waste biomass into jet fuel, diesel fuel and electricity. Lufthansa is also looking to obtain jet fuel made from algae by Australian based Algae.Tec, which plans to grow algae in 40 ft shipping containers, using light capture arrays and light tubes, and CO2 from an industrial source - as well as water and minerals. Algae.Tec have so far opened a one-container test facility south of Sydney.
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Germany and the US strengthen ties to develop alternative aviation fuels with intergovernmental agreement
The German Aviation Initiative for Renewable Energy in Germany (aireg) and the American Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI), have signed an agreement to co-operate on developing biofuels for aviation. Aireg wants biofuel making up 10% of aviation fuel in Germany by 2015. They both want government help in getting aviation biofuel started, and scaling it up commercially. They want harmonisation of standards between Europe and the USA until a global standard could be agreed. They want government to ensure that biomass and biofuels are available for use by airlines. They say “Governments need to ensure policies and incentives are in place and venture capital is available for financing research and infrastructure towards the transition to large-scale production. And they talk about jobs and growth, from bio jet fuels. No specific feed stock is mentioned.
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Airbus and Boeing collaborating with Chinese on aviation biofuels – using “gutter oil”
Airbus has joined forces with China’s Tsinghua University to promote the production and use of aviation biofuel in China. They will look at a wide range of feedstocks, including used cooking oil, that might (?) otherwise be wasted, and also algae. The full sustainability analysis should be completed by the beginning of 2013. It hopes to produce useful quantities of aviation fuel for commercial use. In August, Boeing and Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (COMAC) opened a joint technology center in Beijing dedicated to aviation fuel and emissions. They say China annually consumes approximately 29 million tons of cooking oil, while its aviation system uses 20 million tons of jet fuel. There is a lot of dirty "gutter oil" from restaurants, which has been illicitly re-used in food. There are forecasts that passenger traffic in China will surpass 300 million this year and will reach 1.5 billion passengers by 2030.