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Planes to fly on cooking oil
Is it fair to imagine that some people just don't want to know about how certain things are done? If they did, perhaps their irrational side might overwhelm the blinkered side that helps them get through each and every painful day. Does everyone want to know, for example, that the Boeing 737 in which they are strapped is flying on the detritus of some very fine french fries? In the last few days, KLM and Thomson Airways, two European airlines, announced that they would be flying a plane… (news.cnet.com) さらに...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
I have read and heard from many sources that the energy required to produce etahanol fuel exceeds the energy potential of the ethanol produced. There is also the (apparently) unintended consequence of the increased cost of agricultural products available for use as food due to the diversion of farm products for fuel production. I don't have a problem with the use of grease trap oil for fuel IF and AFTER unintended consequences are studied and acknowledged.
I actually disagree with you. in its infancy, biofuels in the US will cross over the 1% mark this year, the Philippines is currently doing 2% biodiesel and 10% ethanol for its fuel needs. Brazil is close to 80%. this doesn't even look at the areas like India, and Africa. or China, which is moving quickly into Bio-fuels. As green fuels come into full acceptance, what you will find is that many high quality food crops are high in oil, the oil is almost always removed, as it makes food recipes in commercial production far more consistent. Soy, for instance is 20% oil. the African oil palm is a real headliner, producing over 60% oil canola, by the way is far lower at 5-10%. as Algae comes int commercial production, it is per acre, the highest producer of all, running over 6000 gallons per acre per year. to shock yourself, try looking up how many millions of acres the US Government pays to have nothing grown on it. then you will realize how easily the worlds petroleum can be replaced by bio based fuels.
Well said, Stu!
Biodiesel is a wonderful and viable technology be it for wheeled vehicles or jet turbines. But we're dreaming if we think it can be scaled up to replace petroleum. Some mentioned ethanol- an absoluteley un-viable source of a primary fuel. It is necessary as an oxygenating additive to gasoline and can be used for processing biodiesel, but mostly it is a commodity designed to line the pockets of those receiving benefit of taxpayer funded subsidies- the big brokers and futures market players in particular. It canNOT net any significant amount of energy because it takes more energy to make it than we can get out of it. Not so for biodiesel, but just how many spare farm acres do we have for growing canola? Not enough, not even close! While I admire and cheer for biodiesel- and have no reservations about using it as a blend in a jet I might be a passenger on, this is mostly a contrived thing to make folks feel good about something without providing any genuinely significant solution. Of course, given how the "problem" itself is so greatly exaggerated, what is the big deal? Yes, we need to improve our stewardship of the planet, absolutely! But no, the proverbial sky is not falling. At least not because we use petroleum as a fuel source. (Anthrogenic CO2 is such a tiny contribution to the total CO2; natural sources positively dwarf what we can make!CO2 is irrelevant to normal climate cycles anyway) This whole arena has a lot more to do with politics than it does genuine science or engineering. Ironically, those who make it out to be a problem are the ones who keep the real solutions from being implemented. Maybe professional Chicken Littles are keeping us from making any genuinely effective advances, preferring instead to believe in and promote the utterly fantastic- & to maintain their perceived significance? May we please have a little more common sense now? So biojet fuel, go for it- just don't expect that it will save the universe!
Good one Geoffrey. Point noted on the carbon.
Energy is energy. Heat is heat. McDonald's in Germany is using waste cooking oil from their deep fryers to run their deisel delivery trucks as much as possible.
If it meets specifications for Jet A..... go for it. Better burned in an aircraft engine than dumped down a sewer.
If it meets specifications for Jet A..... go for it. Better burned in an aircraft engine than dumped down a sewer.