Flight of the world's first biofuel jumbo jet

[Snowgoose]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ ... flight0224

Reuters

February 24, 2008 at 9:59 AM EST

LONDON — Nuts picked from Amazon rain forests helped fuel the world's first commercial airline flight partly powered by renewable energy on Sunday.

A Virgin Atlantic jumbo jet flew from London to Amsterdam with one of its fuel tanks filled with a bio-jet blend including babassu oil and coconut oil. A Virgin Atlantic statement said the biofuel mix provided 25 per cent of the fuel for the test flight.

The biofuels blend on the Virgin flight contained 20 per cent neat biofuel and 80 per cent conventional jet fuel. Virgin founder Richard Branson said tests had shown it was possible to fly with a 40 per cent blend.

"Today marks a vital breakthrough for the whole airline industry," Mr. Branson told reporters in a hangar at Heathrow airport prior to the flight's departure.

Environmental lobby group Friends of the Earth said biofuels were a distraction in the fight to cut carbon dioxide emissions, and that related carbon savings would be negated by increased airline travel.

British billionaire Mr. Branson said it was unlikely the nut of the wild growing babassu palm would play a key role as airlines turn to renewable fuel sources to cut the industry's greenhouse gas emissions.

"We did not want to use biofuels such as corn oil which were competing with staple food sources," he said, adding he believed algae produced in places like sewage treatment farms were the most likely future source of renewable fuel for the airline industry.

Biofuels, which are currently mainly produced from crops such as grain, vegetable oils and sugar, are seen by advocates as a way to cut emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

There has been concern, however, that an expansion in the area of crops grown for energy has helped drive up food prices, and some scientists have questioned the environmental benefits of so-called first generation biofuels.

Friends of the Earth said in a statement: "There is mounting evidence the carbon savings from these crop-based fuels will be small at best."

"Even if every plane leaving the UK was able to run on biofuels from tomorrow, any carbon savings would be wiped out in less than 10 years by the rapid growth of the aviation industry."

Many scientists believe so-called second generation biofuels, which could be made from products such as municipal waste, will provide more substantial environmental benefits without competing with food crops for land.

Mr. Branson, whose Virgin Group business spans an airline, a rail service, drinks, hotels and leisure, has committed to spending all the profits from his airline and rail business to combat global warming by cutting carbon emissions.

Last year, Virgin started to power some of its trains using a fuel containing 20 per cent biodiesel produced mainly using British rapeseed oil blended with U.S. soybean oil and palm oil from the Far East.

[SQ]

The biofuels blend on the Virgin flight contained 20 per cent neat biofuel and 80 per cent conventional jet fuel. Virgin founder Richard Branson said tests had shown it was possible to fly with a 40 per cent blend.

I Heard British Airways intented to do the same with water but was unsuccessfull at the end of the trip...

20/80 is not very convincing. It will be when mixture will reach 100 % of bio fuel.
once again a great anouncement for branson...
and as we allready know, bio fuel production creates and devastate much much more vegetation and environment than CO2 is supposed to make die and all lands will be dedicated to this culture, reducing land dedicated to vegetable and cereal.
we won't produce more CO2, but we'll find another way to destroy directly the environment.

[the_professor]

In addition to what SQ said, witness the stupidity behind the related matter of using corn for ethanol production.

A boatload of corn crops have been dedicated to the ethanol bandwagon. Despite a huge amount of corn processed, the amount of fuel produced as compared to the percentage demanded by the market is laughable. It makes little difference on emissions, and meanwhile poor nations are no longer able to afford the corn as food or livestock feed because of the resulting price increase owing to the increased demand.

Makes good headlines for Mohawk and now Branson though. Won't make a whit of a difference for the world... Just like compact flourescents...

[Edo]

[url]
Last year, Virgin started to power some of its trains using a fuel containing 20 per cent biodiesel produced mainly using British rapeseed oil blended with U.S. soybean oil and palm oil from the Far East.

i wonder what the headline was? Virgin Runs on Rapeseed?

[the_professor]

[url]
Last year, Virgin started to power some of its trains using a fuel containing 20 per cent biodiesel produced mainly using British rapeseed oil blended with U.S. soybean oil and palm oil from the Far East.

i wonder what the headline was? Virgin Runs on Rapeseed?

How many greenhouse gases were generated in order to transfer the US soybean oil and British rapeseed to the refineries (located god knows where) for production, where it was then shipped to a fueling station (god knows where in the rail network) for the trains??

This whole effort to "reduce emissions" is a complete joke that more often than not involves a net zero reduction once the final product is delivered. But it makes some farmers and businessmen happy. And corporate joe must be happy too.

As they say, ignorance is bliss.

[bmc]

While I applaud the effort, it is not sustainable. It is not a long term solution.

Many i the airline business do not see this as a great solution.

I have to agree with the professor.

[Uncle Leo]

If they could make one that smells like french fries when it runs, that would be outstanding.

[Four1oh]

Biofuel- the joke of the new millennium. Anything to keep those agri-lobbyists rich.

[North Shore]

So what do you naysayers suggest? We keep on blindly charging into the future, running on Jet-A until we run out of it, and praying that we (personally, in our jobs) don't end up holding the hot potato at the end?

I'd suggest, seeing as aviation is only about 3% of global CO2 production, that we look at biofuels as the only sustainable method of fuelling aeroplanes, without getting into major infrastructure costs (new A/C and engine designs, fuelling systems etc..) And, if you wanted to reduce CO2 emissions, then a better place to start would be vehicles..

I suppose the counter to that would be that it is only 3%, and therefore, a smaller amount of money would be needed to re-equip the airline infrastructure than would be necessary for the automotive...

[Four1oh]

as a biofuel naysayer, I would argue that you can make perfectly acceptable biodiesel out of garbage, and waste from slaughterhouses, instead of converting millions of tonnes of FOOD into biofuel. The world can barely keep up with food demand as it is, and now we're turning corn into gas? I can't believe I have to explain how retarded this whole thing is! Ethanol is not the answer. At least Ethanol, how they are producing it is not the answer.

[North Shore]

4-1, if I may, a small, simple, primer: (Not trying to be patronizing here, BTW)

Biofuel - any fuel made from plants
Bio-diesel - a substitute for diesel fuel made from vegetable oil (generally Soy and palm oils)
Ethanol - Alcohol family, made from corn/wheat.

the three terms are not interchangeable, although those in the press seem to think so.

Agreed that starving Mexicans or Africans because they can't afford to buy a staple food like corn because its value is being driven up by our need to put cheap ethanol in our gas tanks is pretty much criminal...

Also, it seems that the current (USA??) policy of ethanol blends is more of a subsidy to farmers than real progress on the subject.

That being said, there is a company in Ottawa (Nexgen?) that is working on a system for converting cellulose (corn stalks, straw etc..)into ethanol efficiently. If that comes to fruition, then we'd probably grow more wheat and corn just so we can get the cellulose...

Likewise bio-diesel. At present much of the North American supply comes as a by-product of soybean production. The soy is grown primarily for the protein content which is fed to cattle after the oil is pressed out. There are other plants that produce a higher amount of oil per acre than soy. I'm sure that they will come on-stream once the economic picture becomes clearer...

The trick, of course, is to find a plant solution that doesn't displace food-crop land...

Wouldn't it be ironic to fill up our SUV for a trip to the 7-11, only to find no food there because we put it in our gas tank?

[Four1oh]

I hear you, good points, of course(read my signature as well, por favor!)


http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=213343
Forget oil, the new global crisis is food

BMO strategist Donald Coxe warns credit crunch and soaring oil prices will pale in comparison to looming catastrophe

Corn grows in a farm field near Seneca, Illinois. Rising demand for grain to make fuel, food and livestock feed has helped push the prices of corn and soybeans.Scott Olson/Getty ImagesCorn grows in a farm field near Seneca, Illinois. Rising demand for grain to make fuel, food and livestock feed has helped push the prices of corn and soybeans.

A new crisis is emerging, a global food catastrophe that will reach further and be more crippling than anything the world has ever seen. The credit crunch and the reverberations of soaring oil prices around the world will pale in comparison to what is about to transpire, Donald Coxe, global portfolio strategist at BMO Financial Group said at the Empire Club's 14th annual investment outlook in Toronto on Thursday.

"It's not a matter of if, but when," he warned investors. "It's going to hit this year hard."

Mr. Coxe said the sharp rise in raw food prices in the past year will intensify in the next few years amid increased demand for meat and dairy products from the growing middle classes of countries such as China and India as well as heavy demand from the biofuels industry.

"The greatest challenge to the world is not US$100 oil; it's getting enough food so that the new middle class can eat the way our middle class does, and that means we've got to expand food output dramatically," he said.

The impact of tighter food supply is already evident in raw food prices, which have risen 22% in the past year.

Mr. Coxe said in an interview that this surge would begin to show in the prices of consumer foods in the next six months. Consumers already paid 6.5% more for food in the past year.

Wheat prices alone have risen 92% in the past year, and yesterday closed at US$9.45 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade.

At the centre of the imminent food catastrophe is corn - the main staple of the ethanol industry. The price of corn has risen about 44% over the past 15 months, closing at US$4.66 a bushel on the CBOT yesterday - its best finish since June 1996.

This not only impacts the price of food products made using grains, but also the price of meat, with feed prices for livestock also increasing.

"You're going to have real problems in countries that are food short, because we're already getting embargoes on food exports from countries, who were trying desperately to sell their stuff before, but now they're embargoing exports," he said, citing Russia and India as examples.

"Those who have food are going to have a big edge."

With 54% of the world's corn supply grown in America's mid-west, the U.S. is one of those countries with an edge.

But Mr. Coxe warned U.S. corn exports were in danger of seizing up in about three years if the country continues to subsidize ethanol production. Biofuels are expected to eat up about a third of America's grain harvest in 2007.

The amount of U.S. grain currently stored for following seasons was the lowest on record, relative to consumption, he said.

"You should be there for it fully-hedged by having access to those stocks that benefit from rising food prices."

He said there are about two dozen stocks in the world that are going to redefine the world's food supplies, and "those stocks will have a precious value as we move forward."

Mr. Coxe said crop yields around the world need to increase to something close to what is achieved in the state of Illinois, which produces over 200 corn bushes an acre compared with an average 30 bushes an acre in the rest of the world.

"That will be done with more fertilizer, with genetically modified seeds, and with advanced machinery and technology," he said.

Close
Reader Discussion

[brownbear]

There is ideas with the biofuel development that don't impinge on food production. There are talks of farming algae for this source and then there is the waste idea. We produce lots of waste that could be made into fuel.

The fact of the matter is Virgin showed they want to pursue change. It's a bit of a marketing ploy and has a benefit too.

All Biofuels are considered neutral for Co2 output. As the plant is absorbing the carbon from the atmosphere to grow.

I think for energy in general we are missing the natural harnessing of energy that the environment is providing. Wind, sun, tidal, geothermal etc. There countries in the world already that harnessing natural energy and don't have to burn coal or oil to power for electricity. Canada is far from being a leader on alternate sources of energy. I would like to see aviation developments in this sector too..

[Four1oh]

I want to see more emphasis on creating electricity for the existing grid. I'm pretty sure the biggest contributer to pollution and greenhouse gas emmisions are the stationary thingy's called cities, and factories, and power stations... Maybe find a solution there first, then worry more about the complexities of moving vehicles such as cars and planes. Design alternative powerplants for cargo ships first, for instance!(like sails?)

[rigpiggy]

Hi Jack 10% of the nevada desert would supply 1.5 times the electrical requirement for all of the USA. Storage bad wx days could be solved by deep level thermal storage. however the wrong people would make money. IE: what would the coal/natural gas/ oil companies do with reduced demand/revenues.

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Sketch of a Parabolic Trough Collector system.
Sketch of a Parabolic Trough Collector system.

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