Can aviation go green with algae-based biofuels?
When a Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 took off for a 40-minute flight from London to Amsterdam Feb. 24, it represented an aviation breakthrough. For the first time a commercial airliner took aloft on other than fossil fuels. One of the plane’s four engines was fired on a 20 percent biojet fuel blend. The aim of the test flight was to explore how a biofuel performs in high altitude cold temperatures...LinkThe next test aims to validate sustainability. When the Air New Zealand test takes place, it will be with a second generation feedstock. Of the possibilities, two are worth noting: algae and jatropha. Both grow on non-agricultural land. Algae can employ saline water, and jatropha grows in dry conditions on degraded lands, in fact helping accumulate carbon in the soil. There are solid indications that biojet from jatropha or algae could provide massive amounts of fuel, and at costs lower than petroleum-based jet fuel.
Boeing’s own presentation on alternative fuels shows that land use issues are part of the sustainable biojet program’s DNA. “If the world airline fleet used 100% biojet fuel from soybeans, it would require 322 billion litres,” the presentation says. At 560 liters of oil per hectare that would require 5,750 million square kilometers, about the size of Europe. But algae could produce up to 94,000 liters per acre, shrinking land requirements to 35,000 square kilometers, about a Belgium’s worth of land.
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This may be a stupid question, but aren't algae blooms a huge problem in parts of the world? Is that the same kind of algae that this uses? And can it be harvested and thus removed from where it's a problem, and used for this beneficial purpose?
It is a specific algae used to get the oil yields and quality they need. New Zealand are using algae grown on sewerage ponds.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC0605/S00030.htm
Thank god it isn't another food-based biofuel.
FYI: Rice prices went up 30% in one day, last month. Look for rioting very soon.
okay, i know it was a test, but it was ONE engine running on a 20% BLEND biofuel. :S
Boeing might make powerpoints claiming running out of oil doesn't matter, they'll just rebrand as Soylent Airways ... but what do the Belgians have to say about it?
It might be slightly more realistic to start with the actual area of land that is available for bio-jetfuel, and then project out how big the world air-fleet is going to be once we're over peak oil?
Do we believe that algae will be 167 times the efficiency of soya at capturing the suns energy, as opposed to "up to", and do the figures for algae (and soya) include the use of petro-derived fertilizers that have a similar availability as the oil they're trying to replace?
I'm sure it's great PR for Branson, and that asking these questions can be confused for unbridled negativity, but it actually matters we're getting this right before our governments start handing out subsidies to do crazy things that sound plausible but don't add up in the cold light of day.
It had better; otherwise we're right back to steamships.
I'm sure that lot's of people may be looking into this, but this made me think of a story in a local weekly about a guy who went down to the river and scooped up a bunch of algae foam, and realized it burned similar to oil. Here is the story:
http://www.styleweekly.com/article.asp?idarticle=14760
Just how much fresh water would an algae-based biofuel factory need to consume? I seriously doubt they would use salt water in production. The current biofuel industry darling, ethanol, consumes an ungodly amount of fresh water in production, potentially depleting local aquifers where these plants are built (usually low-income rural areas where people are more likely to rely on wells for their water needs)
There is a very important part that often gets overlooked when the discussion turns to biofuels.
This could either be great or awful. If it is blue-green algae its good because that is one of the most oxygen producing photosynthesis plants so it basically eats CO2. An increase demand for this product creates harvesting which increases the amount of the algae. This is good for those who are against CO2 emissions and so on. It can be awful because the same environmentalist that complain about CO2 complain about logging, lumber, and using products made from trees. Not understanding that an increase demand would create an increase in land that is used for planting and re-planting trees. So if we get complaints about chopping down the algae forests look out.
#8: So, algae can "employ" saline water? What, exactly, does this mean? Obviously, algae can grow in ocean water. Is that all that "employ" means, in this context? If so, this is meaningless, as far as the ultimate impact on the environment goes.
Talking about saline water almost never is discussing grand environmental impact. It almost ALWAYS is discussing impact on human agriculture, and the rather pressing business of providing enough water and food for human beings.
Although diverting fresh water sources to agriculture is usually bad for whatever part of the ecosystem was originally using that water...
#8: Just how much fresh water would an algae-based biofuel factory need to consume? I seriously doubt they would use salt water in production.
Why? If the algae is a salt-water species, then it needs salt water. If they situate near the ocean, the producers won't need to pay the (much higher) rates for fresh water and refined sodium chloride if they can use pre-salinated ocean water.
#8: The current biofuel industry darling, ethanol, consumes an ungodly amount of fresh water in production, potentially depleting local aquifers where these plants are built (usually low-income rural areas where people are more likely to rely on wells for their water needs)
I'm not sure about what stage of the production you're discussing, and I have no idea what would be required after the plants are harvested and are being processed.
But just growing the corn/soya takes a lot of water that could be used to slake the thirst of humans, or at least to water crops to feed the bellies of humans.
If the algae-based biofuel needs freshwater in the processing stage, then that's unfortunate, but at least being able to eliminate the requirement for fresh water at the agricultural stage is enormously helpful.
While the environment in the fresh-water-poor area won't appreciate having huge algae pools built on it, there's the ethical bonus of not building it on farmland that could support people.
Excellent use of a "Belgium" as a unit of measure!
"#8: Just how much fresh water would an algae-based biofuel factory need to consume? I seriously doubt they would use salt water in production."
Yes they can. I am involved with a consortium of researchers who are focussed on the production of biofuels from algae and they have successfully induced salt resistance into freshwater strains - note that is induced, not engineered, so they are not GM strains (just in case you have bought the fear campaign over GMOs). We have shown that the entire process can be fresh water positive - ie salt water in, fresh water out.
I believe that the algal biofuel approach makes sense for a lot of different reasons - the algae itself is simple, has no need for elaborate support structures (leaves, branches etc)which provides greater efficiency, does not compete with arable land, fresh water angle, and is a simple organism which can be easily modified and adapted.
We are currently in discussions with power generation and mining companies to develop an algal based system which are coupled directly to waste ponds of water which contain heavy metals, contaminants you name it - all of which the algae can happily remove while happily growing fat with oil. If you have a smoke stack belching out CO2 than that is a perfect source of carbon for the algae as well.
So I envision that both opportunistic fuel production plants (wastewater ponds etc) and purpose built fuel production facilities in the future. We also have a high hydrogen producing algae so when (not if) the infrastructure for the hydrogen economy is in place, the skills we have developed with algal biodiesel/biojet fuel production can easily be applied to H production.
More detailed information can be found at www.solarbiofuels.org
one plant is always missing from discussions on biofuel, and it gets me... hemp.
from the great jello biafra spoken word piece "grow more pot":
"According to none other than the U.S. Department of Agriculture you can make four times as much paper from one acre of hemp plants as you can from an acre of trees. And instead of chopping down all the redwoods in Humboldt County and turning Northern California, Oregon and Washington and Appalachia into the Sahara Desert, if you do it with hemp plants, you can just grow another crop a few months later and make more paper! At one-quarter the cost of making paper from wood pulp and only one-fifth the pollution. The ancient Romans knew this and grew it, Henry VIII made each farmer in old England grow their share, because they knew if you want the strongest natural fiber there is, you all have gotta do your part for the King and grow more pot!
And we did, too! Guess what Levi jeans were originally made out of? And guess what American flags used to be made out of? And guess what the early drafts of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were written on? And if that's too un-Christian for you, guess what they made Guttenberg and King James Bibles out of? Guess what you can use to power a car? You can get at least four times as much cellulose to make gasohol or methanol from hemp stems as you can from a corn stalk. Which along with solar energy would be a great way to avoid dying for oil in Saudi Arabia. "
but this algae fuel sounds cool, too... micro-organisms are our past, present and future...