Cubdriver

Corruption? Maybe... It does look like a ripe field for it. Pardon the pun.

Cubdriver

Lufthasa Conducting First Transatlantic Flight With Biofuel.

(USA Today, 1/10/12) "Boarding Area" blog reports, "Lufthasa announced that it will be concluding it's biofuel testing initiatives by conducting the first ever transatlantic flight using biofuels." The flight is scheduled for Thursday afternoon from Frankfurt to Washington, DC. According to the article, "Lufthansa has been pioneering the use of biofuels for quite some time on test routes in Germany and is now expanding the test to include this long haul flight."

BioJet, Council of Energy Resource Tribes form strategic partnership for aviation biofuels.

(J. Lane, 1/11/12, BiofuelsDigest) In Colorado, the Council of Energy Resource Tribes (CERT) today announced formation of a strategic business relationship with BioJet International. CERT is comprised of 57 sovereign Indian tribes as members. CERT members collectively own and manage more than 30% of the coal west of the Mississippi and 10% of known national oil and gas reserves in the United States. CERT members also manage millions of acres of agricultural lands from which feedstock for biofuels may be grown.

Cubdriver

Obama Promotes [Biofuels]


(B. Wingfield, 2/24, Bloomberg) The Energy Department is investing in biofuel technology made from algae as a substitute for gasoline, jet fuel and diesel fuel. Faced with the highest oil prices in nine months, President Barack Obama is backing [algae-based biofuel] as a path to energy independence, pitting the nascent algae-based biofuels industry against critics of his energy plan. The administration yesterday announced as much as $14.3 million to support the development of biofuels from algae, as crude oil for April delivery rose to $107.83 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, its highest settlement price since May. “We could replace up to 17 percent of the oil we import for transportation with this fuel that we can grow right here in the United States,” Obama said in Miami during a speech on energy policy. The Energy Department is seeking proposals from small businesses, national laboratories and universities to create research “test beds” for algal biofuels research at existing facilities, according to a statement from the agency. The award money will be part of a $30 million investment in similar research this year, it said. Algae, a plant-like organism, can be harvested from ponds near industrial sites, where it can grow from power-plant carbon emissions or wastewater substances, the White House said in a fact sheet. The Energy Department is backing more than 30 projects representing about $85 million in public and private investment to develop biofuels from algae, it said...

China Makes Aviation Biofuel Use Predictions.

(China Daily, 2/29, Zhou) reports, "China is expected to use 12 million metric tons of aviation biofuels by 2020, accounting for 30 percent of the country's total use of jet fuel, according to Li Jian, deputy director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China." Li "said China now has the technology needed to produce jet biofuels and only needs to produce the substances more cheaply to sell them commercially." Meanwhile, China Petrochemical Corp also announced it has produced its own biofuel.

Officials Seek To "Jump-Start" Aviation Biofuel Industry.

The Seattle Times (3/18, Song) reported on efforts to help "jump-start the nascent [aviation biofuel] industry and to bring prices of jet biofuel down to earth." On Thursday, for example, Washington State Gov. Chris Gregoire "signed a bill that would let private aviation biofuel plants in the state tap financing through lower-interest revenue bonds." Meanwhile, US Sen. Maria Cantwell, "who chairs the Senate subcommittee on aviation, is pushing the Federal Aviation Administration to create an aviation biofuel research hub, ideally in the Tri-Cities near Washington State University's branch campus and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory."

Cubdriver

Carbon tax drives another biofuel effort.
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Major Plane Makers Join Forces To Develop Biofuels.

AFP (3/23) reports Boeing, Airbus, and Embraer "announced on Thursday a joint plan to develop affordable biofuels for the airplane industry." This work "is intended to come up with a so-called 'drop in' technology that all airplane models could use, regardless of the make." All three, who called for a "unity" in purpose, "said they were committed to reducing the industry's substantial carbon footprint."

block30

Thanks Cubdriver, for the updates! I am very interested to see tge developments in algae, particularly. I wish this was ready to go, like yesterday!

Cubdriver

Biofuel is going to happen, fossil fuel is simply biofuel from the annals of time. The beauty of biofuel is it is a drop-in replacement for Jet A, and it has a bright future for that reason. The problem is paying for the heavy infrastructure development it takes to produce it en masse- huge obstacle there. Taxpayers do not want to fund it, but the current fuel market will not pay $30+ a gallon for it either. My readings tell me algae is the way to go although the industry may try other avenues especially in third world countries. Like wind, coal, nuclear, natural gas, etc. it may take decades to grab a large share of the transportation fuel market.

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Oil Scare Turns FedEx On To Energy Efficiency

(J. Ydstie, NPR, 4/1/12) The rising cost of oil isn't just a hit to the family budget. Businesses are hurt, too. Few are more affected than firms like FedEx. It deploys nearly 700 planes and tens of thousands of trucks and vans every day to deliver packages around the world. And few business leaders are more focused on finding alternatives to petroleum-based fuels than FedEx CEO Fred Smith. Shortly after Smith founded Federal Express, the 1973 Arab oil embargo almost killed it. The experience imprinted Smith with a keen interest in the price and availability of oil. "That would be an understatement," Smith laughs. "For sure." FedEx now burns 1.5 billion gallons a year of petroleum-based fuels, and, once again, the potential for conflict in the Middle East, specifically with Iran, has boosted prices and raised fears of a supply disruption. Smith says keeping the supply of imported oil flowing has cost the U.S. dearly over the past 40 years. "We spend about $70 [billion] to $80 billion a year as a country doing that, not just for ourselves, but for the rest of the world as a whole," Smith says. "And that's even before we get to the $1.3 trillion we've spent on Afghanistan and Iraq, and as Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, said pretty plainly, 'Iraq was about oil.' Not totally, but ... so these are very big issues."

Sapphire Energy Announces $144 Million Funding

(A.M. Edwards, 04/02/12, DomesticFuel) San Diego-based biofuel developer Sapphire Energy, Inc. has secured the final installment of $144 million in a Series C round of venture funding that includes Arrowpoint Partners, Monsanto, and other undisclosed investors. This round of funding is being used to directly support Sapphire’s active and on-schedule commercial demonstration of an algae-based biofuels facility in Luna County, New Mexico. The Green Crude Farm, also known as the Integrated Algal BioRefinery (IABR), is the world’s first commercial demonstration scale algae-to-energy facility, integrating the entire value chain of algae-based fuel, from cultivation to production to extraction of ready-to-refine Green Crude. With this latest investment round, Sapphire Energy’s total funding from private and public sources substantially exceeds $300 million. This announcement follows several recent partnerships and deals supporting Sapphire Energy’s continued expansion in Green Crude production. Last month, Sapphire announced it will integrate Earthrise Nutritionals’ spirulina strain into its growing inventory of cyanobacteria and algae strains to expand resources for algae-to-energy production. In May 2011, Sapphire announced a multi-year agreement with The Linde Group to co-develop a low-cost system to deliver CO2 to commercial-scale, open-pond, algae-to-fuel cultivation systems, now underway at the Green Crude Farm. In March 2011, Sapphire and Monsanto entered into a multi-year collaboration on algae-based research projects. Sapphire also was awarded a $50 million grant from the Department of Energy and a $54.4 million dollar loan guarantee from the Department of Agriculture, providing security for a privately funded loan...

Cubdriver

Boeing, All Nippon Airways Fly 787 Using Biofuels Blend.

The Everett (WA) Herald (4/18, Dunlop) reports, "The Boeing Co. and All Nippon Airways flew a 787 using a biofuels blend for the first time Monday." Billy Glover, Boeing vice president of environmental and aviation policy, remarked, "The 787 is the most environmentally progressive jetliner flying today, combining fuel efficiency and comfort with reduced carbon emissions." ANA senior executive vice president Osamu Shinobe added, "Our historic flight using sustainable biofuels across the Pacific Ocean highlights how innovative technology can be used to support our industry's goal of carbon-neutral growth beyond 2020."

Tests of aviation jet biofuel to start.

(4/30/12, UPI) MORRISTOWN, N.J., April 30 (UPI) -- U.S. tech firm Honeywell says it is starting one of the aviation industry's first comprehensive test programs for aviation biofuel. Honeywell subsidiary UOP will carry out the program in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada and Agrisoma Biosciences, earthtechling.com reported Monday. Blends of Honeywell green jet fuel will be tested at higher ratios than used in previous demonstration flights, which to date have not exceeded a 50/50 blend of biofuel and petroleum-based jet fuel. The biofuel being tested has been produced from a new non-food, industrial oilseed crop produced by Ottawa-based Agrisoma from Brassica carinata, belonging to a family of flowering plants that also includes cabbages and turnips, Honeywell said.Read more: Tests of aviation jet biofuel to start - UPI.com

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Edit: I stopped following development of this engine some time ago and chose to focus on fuel rather than engines. It's nice to get some good news about it after several years.

Pratt’s engine future: Pancakes on biofuel.

(B. Kane, HartfordBusiness.com, 5/07/12) The future of East Hartford aerospace manufacturer Pratt & Whitney seems golden. Its geared turbofan engine is the talk of the aviation industry and the company is projecting $325 billion or so over the next two decades from its latest generation of the commercial jet engine. But in an industry where project cycles are measured in decades, the company is already planning an engine encore. That encore? Pancakes. Pratt has been hailed for its so-called game-changing technology in the geared turbofan engine, an environmentally-friendly, noise-reducing, fuel-saving propulsion system slated for use on four different types of jets. The $13.4 billion company has a backlog of more than 2,600 orders for its four versions of the geared turbofan — also called the PurePower engine — and none of the four has reached the production phase yet. The company expects $325 billion in total revenue over the life of the program. “Everything we have been asserting in the marketplace has been validated in testing,” said Pratt President David Hess. “We continue to get phenomenal results from the air and ground tests.”

But the life of the program will expire sometime between 2025 and 2035, and given the nearly two decade development cycle of the PurePower, the company needs to start thinking about the next generation soon. “This is our success du jour,” said Alan Epstein, Pratt vice president of technology and environment. “We are heroes of the moment.” As the head of Pratt’s advanced technology, Epstein thinks about the company’s next move long before managers take a concept and start developing a product with a budget. “I’m worried about what’s the engine to replace the GTF and the one after that,” Epstein said. The aerospace company has until 2025 or 2030 before it will need the next generation of engines for narrowbody planes such as the Boeing 737 or Airbus A320. Pratt’s engines of the future will be much wider in diameter in the front but much shorter in the back. In essence, they will become more pancake-like, Epstein said. That shape significantly reduces carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions. The future’s engines will need fewer blades, as has been the trend with each generation of Pratt engines. They will need to be more fuel-efficient.

The PurePower offers a 16 percent fuel burn improvement over the best performing engine currently on the market. The next generation will need to yield another 10-15 percent improvement over the geared turbofan, Epstein said. The fuel-saving and noise-reduction benefits will play a major role in all the following generations of Pratt engines, Epstein said. As vice president for technology and environment, Epstein’s time is split between looking for product improvements and dealing with regulators as well as determining the proper balance between suppliers’ environmental impact and cost.

Cubdriver

Green fuel is possible with artificial ecosystems/ Open ponds versus closed

(5/10/12, C.Dormer, planetearth) For algae to power our cars and planes, production needs to be low carbon and cost effective, which means working with natural processes, not against them, say scientists. Algae could become an important source of sustainable biofuel, as production doesn't compete with food crops for land. But we may need to change the way we grow algae from closed systems to open ponds if it is to be low-carbon and cost-effective. This is because current algae production in closed systems – usually for cosmetic ingredients – uses too much energy keeping the ecosystem isolated from the surrounding environment. To overcome this issue, scientists from the University of Cambridge suggest that when grown in open ponds, algae should be supplemented with multiple species that help support the algae in some way. This would make the system less vulnerable to outside influences such as predators. They say that ecosystems with greater numbers of species are more stable and more resilient to change than monoculture systems made up of just one crop. The scientists have coined the term synthetic ecology to describe the creation of artificial ecosystems with multiple species...

FlightGear

Ever wondered what a farmer might think about 'alternative fuels'? Now corporate farming is every-bit as miserly as corporate airlines when it comes to fuel burns. Would we ever consider planting fuel crops over food crops? Sure, some of us grow 'supplemental' fuel. < R.M. Williams Holdings & Tropical forestry services> The industry is, among a great many other things, exploring replacing large displacement diesel engines with 'turbine power packs'... aka helo power-plants.
Both of our governments <and others i would imagine> have been exploring oceanic algae seeding to modify weather, with success. Maybe we should be creating algae blooms in the gulf to seed rain in Texas, to grow maize or sugar for chemical consumption?!
As far as algae goes its a bit of a red herring, growing algae for fuel directly.Its hard to actively grow. Its won't break even cost wise and it can't be grown openly like a university due to EPA laws. Also it would be only a matter of time before some enterprising entity realized that if you don't use 'green' algae and replace it with 'blue green algae' you don't even need light. This wont be ponds with goldfish gentlemen, this will be an industry with 'breeder tanks' and 'cracking chambers' and all the risk associated with it.

Cubdriver

Navy's Great Green Fleet.

(G. Pew, AvWeb, 5/11/12) The U.S. Navy's participation in a 22-nation exercise this summer will include a two-day demonstration of the "Great Green Fleet" carrier strike group, operating in part on alternative non-fossil fuels. The demonstration group will operate aircraft and non-carrier ships on 50/50 blends of biofuel and conventional fuels. The Navy has set a goal of 2020 to meet half of its energy needs with non-fossil fuels. The Great Green Fleet's two-day demonstration during the Rim of Pacific exercise is meant to precipitate a larger months-long deployment of a similarly-fueled group set to deploy in 2016. Increases in fuel costs have pushed Defense Department spending $3 billion over budget in 2012 due to rising fuel costs...

Senate blocks biofuel development in draft defense bill.

(C.Munoz, 05/25/12, TheHill.com) The Pentagon will have to work a little harder if it wants to eventually run its tanks, ships and planes on something other than fossil fuels, thanks to defense lawmakers in the Senate. Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee effectively banned the department from buying alternative fuels or building facilities to manufacture it. Those measures were rolled into the committee's draft of the fiscal 2013 defense budget bill approved on Thursday. Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said he hopes to have the bill brought to the full Senate no later than July...

Engineer Says ICAO Plan to Cut Carbon Emissions Will Mask Output.

Bloomberg News (6/28, Carr) reports, "A metric proposed as part of the International Civil Aviation Organization's plan to curb greenhouse gases in the airline industry will mask the actual emissions of aircraft, according to an aeronautical engineer." Dimitri Simos, the founder of an English airline-engineering software company known as Lissys Ltd., said that "the proposal uses a plane's maximum take-off weight, a certification level known as MTOW, to help determine emissions and whether the aircraft is efficient enough to fly." Simos adds, "Using MTOW as a weight determinant of CO2 is scientifically, and surely also legally under any rational system, utterly indefensible."