Biofuels & novel fuels News
Below are links to stories about aviation biofuels.
Aviation biofuels: which airlines are doing what, with whom?
News of airlines doing test flights using a proportion of biofuel seems to have gone a bit quiet this year. Biofuels Digest has done a round up of what they know about which airlines are linked up with which fuel companies. It appears most of the trial flights used recycled cooking oil, which cannot be a significant component of jet fuel in future as there is just not enough of it. And the realisation is dawning that biofuels compete with food crops for land, water and nutrients. Also it should be asked why aviation should be the recipient of scarce and precious supplies of the few biofuelsl that are genuinely sustainable, and do not have ILUC (indirect land use change) implications.
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Solena partnership with BA to produce jet fuel from London municipal waste – delayed over 2 years?
In 2010 it was announced that Solena and BA would build a plant to produce jet fuel in London. Solena hoped the new aviation fuel would be produced from several types of waste materials destined for landfill. The airline said it plans to use the low-carbon fuel to power part of its fleet beginning in 2014. In 2010 they said the self-contained plant will likely be built in east London. It’s expected to convert 551,000 tons of waste into 16 million gallons of green jet fuel each year. However, the timetable has slipped. Little news can be found about it, and there is no planning application yet. One website said the project will start in 2nd quarter of 2014 and end 2nd quarter 2016. Oxford Catalysts were selected to supply the modular Fischer-Tropsch technology . There has been no planning application yet at Rainham Marshes. The timetable seems to have slipped by at least 27 months.
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Aviation industry presses for biofuels support from governments
Under pressure to cut CO2 the aviation industry is urging policymakers to support the development of biofuels for aircraft but their use remains a novelty due to limited supply and high cost. Industry officials are urging governments to help lift supplies, IATA hopes they airlines can in future use biofuels and so get an (utterly unrealistic) drop in CO2 emissions of 80%. IATA wants government policies to de-risk investment, and provide subsidies to support research, plant development and refining capacity. The industry wants to use 30% biofuels by 2030 and 50% by 2040. Aviation wants road vehicles to use electricity, so they can use the liquid oils. UNEP realises that plant based biofuels may not reduce carbon emissions or even lead to an increase. T&E says aviation could be falling into the same trap as ground transportation in believing that biofuels are easy on the planet. Biofuels, through their life cycle, may be more pernicious than traditional fuels.
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Canada (of the tar sands) greenwash: 10% used cooking oil used to fly its athletes to Olympics
Canadian Olympic team members travelled from Montreal on an Air Canada Airbus A330. 20% of the fuel used to power the Rolls-Royce Trent 700-powered engines contained a 50/50 blend of conventional jet kerosene mixed with recycled cooking oil supplied by Dutch company SkyNRG. Last month, Air Canada conducted its first biofuel flight between Toronto and Mexico City as part of a series of commercial biofuel flights. The airlines hopes this tiny biofuel contribution will slightly reduce their athletes' carbon footprint. Air Canada is also using conventional ways to cut fuel use, like single engine taxiing, reduced thrust take offs, and continuous descent. This is the same Canada that pulled out of the Kyoto protocol, due to its massive carbon emissions from shale oil.
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New $40 million funding annoucement for development of US military & aviation biofuels from DOE
The USA's Department of Energy is to provide $40 million in funding for new producers of biofuels for the military and for aviation. They want to fund innovative sources of fuel and pilot and demonstration production of these fuels. "Novel and highly innovative technologies are strongly encouraged" from a wide variety of non-food lignocellulosic biomass feedstocks and algae, from sources within the USA. Use of excess oil production of food-grade oil does not constitute an acceptable feedstock. The aim is not environmental, but to reduce trade imbalances, and improve fuel security. It is estimated that the US transfers approximately $340 billion each year (nearly $1 billion per day) to foreign nations to purchase crude oil and refined products.
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Boeing, Air China and PetroChina aim for 2nd 50% jatropha biofuel flight test in autumn
Boeing in cooperation with Air China and PetroChina, will press ahead with a 2nd test flight that will be partly powered by jatropha. The flight will be in the last quarter of 2012, and be a trans-Pacific trip, far longer than the one-hour test flight that was conducted in China last October. That flight used 50% jatropha based fuel. China wants to produce more jet fuel from jatropha, which it claims can be produced from large areas of "barren land" where it might grow. The aim of the biofuel flight is to prove that a China-produced biofuel works, and to ensure "regulators and airlines around the world are comfortable using it for commercial flights."
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Sugar-based biofuel flight on 19th June, to coincide with Rio+20, purporting to be “sustainable”
Here's a depressing story. Using jet fuel derived from sugarcane, and therefore not separate from food production, Azul Brazilian Airlines will put on a flight on 19th June. They say how desirable using sugarcane is for jet fuel, as it "can be produced sustainably in large-scale quantities in Brazil and other tropical countries." And that jet fuel from sugarcane has "emission reduction potential". This flight, to coincide with Rio+20 is just greenwash, and the industry capitalising on a marketing opportunity for a form of fuel is actually not sustainable, and that competes with land that could and should be used for food production..
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Aviation biofuel hype in the Guardian – by a lobbyist for agribusiness and biofuel
Ben Caldecott, who is - surprisingly and depressingly - a trustee of the Green Alliance, has written in the Guardian of his support for biofuels as the future for aviation. This appears to be a re-hash of an article he did almost three years ago, and does not appear to take on board the serious reservations there are now about the environmental, climate and social impacts of biofuels. He proposes that air travel will need to expand for business and pleasure, and biofuels will solve the aviation industry's problem. He says, without ever mentioning which biofuel he is considering, and where they will come from, that key airports like Heathrow, Dubai, New York and Hong Kong will need to be using fuel contining an increasing amount of biofuel. It turns out that he works for an organisation that has just been taken over by a big agribusiness and biofuels company. And the Committee on Climate Change expects at the most 10% aviation biofuel by 2050.
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UNCTAD Warning to Global Aviation: Biofuels Will Worsen Food Price Pressures
In a clear early-warning to the global aviation and transportation industry, the UN Conference on Trade & Development (UNCTAD) has asserted that growing usage of biofuels is already contributing to higher food prices, and indicated that the problem could get worse in future. A new UNCTAD report launched in Doha says “mounting financial speculation in commodities and the increasing diversion of agricultural land to biofuel crops has changed the forces underpinning commodity prices, pushing them through a sustained period of increase”. It particularly warns the aviation industry, which is aiming to shift into biofuels in their attempt to reduce emissions, and says the industry has downplayed the long-term impact on land-usage and food prices.
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Boeing 787 Dreamliner delivery flight USA to Tokyo with 10% used cooking oil and chicken fat
All Nippon Airways, in Japan, have used 10% biofuel (it does not say whether in one or more engines) mainly from SkyNRG used cooking oil, in its Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The plane flew from Washington to Tokyo. ANA says there were significant carbon savings - though two thirds of the carbon savings claimed come from the Dreamliner itself, rather than the fuel. There are known supply problems with used cooking oil, and there is not enough of it to be more than a token gesture for the aviation industry, on publicity flights. Boeing say the Dreamliner can carry 201 - 250 passengers on routes of up to 14,200 to 15,200 km; and 250 to 290 passengers on routes of up to14,800 to 15,750 km. Boeing claim it produces 20% less CO2 than a similarly-sized current commercial aircraft.