Aviation Biofuel: The Race To Replace Petroleum
I drive a 1985 Mercedes diesel car on recycled vegetable oil that I buy at San Francisco Bay Area biofuel pumps. The pumps are few and far between. The biofuel industry is still in its infancy, but it's looking more and more like I'll soon be able to fly a biofueled airplane more easily than I can find a biofuel fueling station for my car. Aviation biofuel is here, and coming to a commercial flight near you.
But is there a whiff of french fries in the air? On its veggie diet, my ancient Mercedes approximates the smell of a McDonald's as it cruises merrily along the freeway.
A plane that travels from Hawaii to New York City exhausts an average of 2-plus tons of greenhouse gases per passenger. Do the math: 150 passengers = 300 tons of gases. We Americans are notorious energy hogs, and we are responsible, on average, for only 2 tons of carbon emissions per an entire year.
Unlike petroleum, biofuels are made from renewable resources -- plants. These plants take in unhealthy carbon dioxide as they grow and release healthy oxygen. Then, used as biofuel, they have the capacity to reduce aviation carbon emissions by perhaps 80%, say the experts.
It also could save the airline industry from wild and unpredictable fluctuations in the petroleum market. And oh by the way, petroleum is running out -- the only question is when. And so in recent years many airlines have worked to accelerate the introduction of biofuel into their flight plans.
Some recent advances:
August 2011: The longest commercial biofuel flight to date will be flown by Finnair, on its Amsterdam to Helsinki route. For this test, the fuel will be 50% recycled vegetable oil (used cooking oil, just as my Mercedes gets) and 50% normal aviation fuel.
June 2011: The first biofueled aircraft to complete a transatlantic flight followed Charles Lindbergh's route from New Jersey to France. It was a Gulfstream jet owned by Honeywell, which is developing Honeywell Green Jet Fuel. Again, a 50/50 blend was used, and only in one of the two engines. But still, the jet touched down safely in Paris. The biofuel was made from a relative of the mustard plant called camelina, which is a non-food cover crop that also grows well on poor soil not suitable for most agriculture.
A number of airlines have tried biofuel derived from another little-known plant, jatropha. These include Continental, Air New Zealand, Japan Airlines, TAM Airlines (Brazil) and Interjet (Mexico), which is partnered in its testing with European aircraft maker Airbus. All tests have been deemed successful using fuel from jatropha, a non-edible plant that grows in places where food crops won't.
To date, a total of 16 test flights by Honeywell have successfully used petroleum alternatives like camelina and jatropha. Algae is also promising as a biofuel source. All are inedible and sustainable, and none required any change to the aircraft engines.
The last thing the world needs is land taken out of food production to grow biofuel plants. So the airline industry's commitment to testing only inedible plants that grow where food plants don't is important. Finnair, for one, promises that its biofuel must "significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, must not compromise food production or lead to biodiversity degradation or deforestation." Let's hope they also don't forget to scent the air with the irresistible odor of french fries.
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