Green flights: Airlines go for biofuels

The humble blue-green algae, the innocuous jatropha plant and the fast-growing camelina could well power a 735,000 lb plane soon. And airlines, plane manufacturers and engine companies have joined hands to see that these biomass sources oil the wheels of aviation as early as 2013 along with fossil fuels.
The International Air Transport Association’s goal is to see that alternative fuels form 10% of aviation fuel consumption by 2017. Boeing foresees them being used regularly within 3-5 years, while Airbus believes that by 2030, up to 30% of aviation fuel will be alternative.
Aviation is responsible for 2% of carbon emissions, but unlike other sectors such as power and ground transport, it doesn’t have alternative energy sources such as wind, hydro and electricity. Besides, almost 40% of an airline’s costs go towards fuel. It therefore makes good business sense to commercialize sustainable fuel sources, says Dr Dinesh Keskar, president of Boeing India. ‘‘Sustainable biofuels unlike other energy sources, meet the unique requirements of aviation jet fuel,’’ he says. These include having the correct energy density, freezing points and high energy content per unit weight and volume.
‘‘Any biofuel used,’’ says Paul Nash, head of New Energies at Airbus in Toulouse, ‘‘should be able to work on all aircraft types, new and old and without the need to modify either the aircraft or the engine and be able to mix with existing jet fuel.’’ And the aviation industry is only interested in those sources that don’t compete with food or fresh water resources or lead to land use change, explains Keskar. These are called second generation biofuels.
The best biofuels, says Charlie Miller, vice-president, International Corporate Communications at Boeing, are algae, jatropha, halophytes and camelina.
Says Alok Adholeya, director of Biotechnology and Management of Bioresources Division at The Energy and Resources Institute, Delhi, India has good resources for algae. ‘‘We have a large coastline of over 7,000 km where algae can be grown. This, along with sunlight and flue gas (a pollutant from industries) can be used to produce this fuel on a continuous basis.’’ Algae can produce 15-300 times more oil per acre than conventional crops, such as rapeseed or soybeans.
26/11/09 Shobha John/Times of India

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Categories: New Nov 2009