I would not be sad to see ethanol and other corn-derived fuels go the way of the dodo bird. The whole ethanol thing has got to be one of the biggest special interest scams congress has ever come up with.

Paying farmers not to grow a crop is number 1.

Making biofuels fly.


(M. Halper, 05/11, SmartPLanet) Aviation biofuel could go a long way to reducing the airline industry’s carbon emissions, but prices must first tumble, government policies must support it, and producers must deploy eco-friendly techniques. That message came through on a panel discussion here today at the Cleantech Forum Amsterdam, where speakers from Dutch airline KLM and Airbus parent EADS both also said that biofuels must work with the existing engines and infrastructure. Thijs Komen, KLM director of business innovation, said that KLM paid five times the going price of fossil based jet fuel for a trial passenger flight that it flew over Holland in 2009. For a company with an annual fuel bill of $2 million, a five-fold premium would be unthinkable. But Komen was cautiously optimistic the price will decline. “One to two years from now we’ll see a price that’s two to two-and-a-half as much as fossil fuel,” he said. A European carbon emissions trading scheme that applies to airlines starting in 2012 will contribute to that fall, as it will increase the price of traditional carbon containing jet fuel – he noted. The carbon in the kerosene that typically goes into aviation fuel would bear a cost. When will aviation biofuel actually become less expensive than fossil fuel? “I don’t know,” Komen answered. “I hope it’s not 2018/19. I hope it’s sooner than that.” EADS paid an even higher premium for the biofuel it used in separate demo flights last year in Germany and the UK, at the ILA Berlin and Farnborough air shows. “It was almost unbelievable, so I won’t tell you what it was,” quipped vice president and executive adviser for energy and propulsion John Price...

Biofuel will eventually be cheaper than Jet A...one way or another.

If biofuel prices don't come down, not to worry, petroleum fuel prices will exceed them someday regardless.

True dat !!!

Except, certain groups will always have their head stuck in the sand. The rising gas price will be a conspiracy, and if only the big bad guvment wood jist let 'em drill..... it would be $1 / gallon.

I'm enjoying the crap out of my 100% electric Nissan LEAF. Costs about $1.84 per 100 miles of electricity. No emissions. No visits to gas stations (charges in my garage at night, like a cell phone).

I wound it up to max speed, 95mph, on my acceptance day. Ops check good.

Study: Biofuels not necessarily 'greener'.

(5/11, UPI) Conventional fossil fuels are sometimes more environmentally "green" than biofuels when the complete carbon footprint of each is examined, U.S. researchers say.Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology examined a trend in the aviation industry to utilize biofuels to combat soaring fuel prices and cut greenhouse gas emissions. Since Virgin Atlantic became the first commercial airline to fly a plane on a blend of biofuel and petroleum in 2008, Air New Zealand, Qatar Airways, Continental Airlines and others have flown biofuel test flights, with Lufthansa moving to be the first carrier to run daily flights on a biofuel blend, an MIT release reported Wednesday. MIT researchers said the industry may want to make sure it has considered biofuels' complete carbon footprint before making an all-out move to the alternative fuel. When a biofuel's origins are factored in -- for example, taking into account whether the fuel is made from palm oil grown in a clear-cut rainforest -- conventional fossil fuels may sometimes be the "greener" choice, they said. "What we found was that technologies that look very promising could also result in high emissions, if done improperly," said James Hileman of MIT's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. "You can't simply say a biofuel is good or bad -- it depends on how it's produced and processed, and that's part of the debate that hasn't been brought forward." ...


DOE-funded project billed as promising way to create biofuel

(A. Cary, TheNewsTribune, 05/18) A Department of Energy grant will pay for a pilot project to test a promising new way to produce biofuel and use Mid-Columbia ag and other waste to do it. The $1.5 million "BioChemCat" pilot project will be conducted at the Bioproducts, Sciences and Engineering Laboratory at Washington State University Tri-Cities in cooperation with the Port of Benton, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and startup company Clean-Vantage. Its goal is to show that many types of ag waste can be efficiently converted into jet fuel, diesel or gasoline using the new BioChemCat process...


US Air Force will dedicate center to develop alternative jet fuels

(J. Nolan, 5/22, Dayton Daily News) The Air Force is opening a center for its ongoing research efforts to develop alternative jet fuels that can help lower the service’s more than $6 billion annual aircraft fuel bill and reduce dependence on foreign sources of oil. The $2.5 million building, home to equipment valued at an additional $2.5 million, will house scientists from the Air Force, University of Dayton Research Institute and Battelle Memorial Institute who are testing blends of traditional JP-8 aircraft fuel and synthetic fuels to determine whether they can reliably power Air Force planes. The Air Force Research Laboratory has provided a $10 million grant in support of the fuels research. AFRL officials are leading a formal ceremony at 10 a.m. today in Wright-Patterson Air Force Base’s Area B to dedicate the new building. It is near the building that the fuel researchers have been using in recent years...

Scientist Says Algae Biofuel Could Be Available In 10 Years.

(5/23, San Diego 10News) Local scientists have turned San Diego into the research capital for an alternative fuel that could be the solution for America's pain at the gas pump.The substance known to many as "pond scum" may one day be the fuel that powers cars but in a way, it is already what puts cars in motion."That's what petroleum is – it's ancient algae," said Dr. Stephen Mayfield, who is one of the leading researchers trying to unlock algae's potential as an environmentally-friendly biofuel. Mayfield said oil is nothing more than 200 million to 300 million-year-old algae pumped out of the ground. So, scientists decided to grow their own algae and extract the oil from it now instead of waiting millions of years for the process to happen naturally...

Study Finds Northwest Would Could Lead Aviation Biofuel Industry.

The AP (5/25) reported, "Boosters of aviation biofuel say the Northwest could lead the way in developing the new industry." A new "biofuels feasibility study" Sustainable Aviation Fuels Northwest, whose members include Boeing, Alaska Airlines, Washington State University, and several airports, finds "there are few power alternatives for airplanes. For the next 20-to-30years they'll need a liquid, energy dense fuel as good as petroleum-based fuel."


US Air Force serious about transition to biofuel blend.

(AF Times, 5/28/11, R.F. Dorr) Even the bluest of the blue — the Thunderbirds — have gone green. Over the weekend of May 20-21, two of the flight team’s F-16 Falcons were scheduled to use a biofuel to soar above air show crowds at Joint Base Andrews, Md. Only six weeks before, three F-15E Strike Eagles flew over opening day ceremonies for the Philadelphia Phillies, also powered by plant seeds. The C-17 Globemaster, too, goes up on biofuel, and so can the A-10 Warthog. And the crown jewel, the F-22 Raptor — well, it’s no longer a petroleum-based JP-8 guzzler, either. In two years, if all goes according to plan, every one of the 5,244 planes in the Air Force’s fleet will be certified to operate on blends. By 2016, the service wants to use alternative fuels for at least half of its domestic aviation fuel requirements...

Ethanol powers surface vehicles and not jets but I thought this was interesting. Like Rick said, it has little to do with what's good for the country or the world, and everything to do with a shameless struggle for political power.
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Who's Afraid Of Ethanol? The 2012 Race Will Tell

(NPR, 05/29, D. Gonyea) Corn is big business in Iowa, which has usually made anything but support for ethanol subsidies off-limits for presidential hopefuls. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty thinks he can win in Iowa, despite his view that all energy subsidies, including ethanol, should be phased out. There has long been a truism for presidential hopefuls in Iowa. If you want to do well in the first of the nation caucuses, then you'd better support subsidies for ethanol. Yet this year, with overall federal spending and deficits becoming such a major issue, the political rules regarding ethanol may be changing. Go back and listen to Iowa stump speeches from candidates past — Democrat and Republican alike, front runners and long shots — and you'll hear lines that have been music to the ears of the states' corn growers. "I support ethanol and I support ethanol strongly," George W. Bush said in 1999. "And I'd support ethanol whether I was here in Iowa or not." That same year, Al Gore boasted of a tie-breaking vote he cast while presiding over the U.S. Senate as vice president. "I voted, and we saved ethanol," he said. "And Iowa won." In 2008, Barack Obama championed ethanol subsides, too...

ASTM International Backs Use Of Biofuels For Airlines.

Bloomberg News (6/10, Downing) reports, "Airlines won the backing of a US- based technical-standards group to power their planes with a blend of traditional fuel and biofuel from inedible plants, the Air Transport Association said today." According to the announcement, airlines could use fuels made up to 50% of biofuels from materials like woodchips or algae. ASTM International has so far given preliminary approval for biofuel use with final approval coming next month at the earliest, according to ASTM communications director Barbara Schindler. Furthermore, Engine maker GE "said at a 50 percent blend level it doesn't expect to see any impact on engines or operability."

Air Transport Intelligence (6/9, Reals) also noted the likely approval by the ASTM International, and according to the article, this is "opening up the possibility for biofuel-powered flights to operate during the 2011 Paris air show" later this month.

Airlines Sign Biofuel Agreement With Solena.

Air Transport Intelligence (6/20, Reals) reports, "A group of 10 airlines has teamed up to sign letters of intent with US bioenergy firm Solena to purchase alternative jet fuel derived from waste biomass from 2015." The biofuel will come from the Solena's GreenSky California plant to be built by 2013. The plant "will produce up to 16 million gal of neat jet fuel a year by 2015, converting about 550,000 metric tons of waste that would otherwise have gone to landfill into fuel through the Fischer-Tropsch process."

Biofuel blend for jets OK'd | The News Journal | delawareonline.com


LONDON -- Airlines have won the backing of a U.S.-based technical-standards group to power their planes with a blend of traditional fuel and biofuel from inedible plants, the Air Transport Association said Thursday.

Fuel processed from organic waste or nonfood materials, such as algae or wood chips, may comprise as much as 50 percent of the total fuel burned to power passenger flights, ATA spokesman Steve Lott and a Boeing official said.

"The real winners of this type of regulatory breakthrough will be technology companies involved in the production of aviation biofuels," said Harry Boyle, an analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance in London. "The biotech-biofuels business models of Amyris Inc., Codexis Inc., Gevo Inc. and Solazyme Inc. are all making claims to these types of new markets."

Other biofuels companies that may benefit from opening up the $139 billion-a-year aviation fuel market are Neste Oil of Finland, Spain's Abengoa and Honeywell International Inc.'s UOP unit, which is developing a fuel-making technology.

The decision to amend jet fuel specifications to include fuels from bio-derived sources "is a tremendous accomplishment for aviation and the result of tremendous collaboration across the entire industry," Boeing Vice President of Environment and Aviation Policy Billy Glover said.

The preliminary approval was granted this week by the West Conshohocken, Pa.-based ASTM International, and it may allow Airbus and Deutsche Lufthansa to undertake a six-month trial they plan in the coming weeks using one engine powered 50 percent by biofuel from jatropha, camelina and animal waste.

Final approval will happen on July 1 at the earliest, Barbara Schindler, communications director at ASTM, said. Airlines will then be able to begin using bio-derived fuel a week or so thereafter, she said.

Under their Burnfair project, Airbus and Lufthansa plan to fly using so-called hydrotreated renewable jet fuel every day, four times a day, from Hamburg to Frankfurt. Lufthansa is aiming to blend clean fuel with kerosene at up to 10 percent of the total by 2020. Airbus estimates airlines may consume 30 percent of their fuel from plant-derived sources by 2030.

The 27-nation European Union is prodding airlines toward cleaner fuels by forcing them to cap emissions or buy permits for the excess beginning next year. Aviation accounts for about 2 percent of global carbon-dioxide emissions.

General Electric, the world's biggest jet engine maker by sales last year, said at a 50 percent blend level, it doesn't expect to see any impact on engines or operability. Airbus and Boeing, which together manufacture about 80 percent of the world's passenger planes, are planning to set up biofuel production chains across the world.

Jets to run on biofuel by 2015.

(7/11, CNN) Qantas, Virgin and Boeing go green as their costs soar due to carbon tax: Aircraft running on biofuel derived from camelina plants are due to be soaring through Australian skies by 2015- the same year a jet biofuel refining facility is set to open. Green fuel will be become an increasingly economic option in the light of the Australian government’s carbon tax announcement. A conglomerate that includes Qantas, Virgin and Boeing has committed to a plan that will ensure that at least five percent of Australia’s aviation fuel will be biofuel by 2015, reports The Sydney Morning Herald. By 2050, this commitment increases to 40 percent. The plan would see biofuel mixed with carbon-emitting, regular jet fuel. Flying in Australia is about to get more expensive: The cost of aviation fuel for domestic use will increase by six cents per liter when the carbon tax is applied next year, with this increasing to 10 cents by 2014. The airline industry is bracing for a $930 million increase in costs over the next four years. International carriers will not be subject to the tax and Australian airlines will have to compete on an uneven playing field. "While we are still modeling the cost impact, at $23 per ton there will be some effect on passengers through higher domestic fares,” Qantas group executive Olivia Wirth told The Daily Telegraph. "By mid-2012 the Qantas group will be facing a carbon price in three markets [internationally] and it will be impossible for us to absorb these costs in their entirety." Japan Airlines conducted a demonstration biofuel flight in January, 2009. KLM operated the "world's first passenger biofuel flight" in November, 2009. Looks like biofuel might be the way of the future...