Bio-Fuel and you...
 

Continental flight powered with biofuel takes off - Yahoo! News

I wonder what the cost ratio is of this bio to oil at $147.

The flight was successful and proved that we probably don't need to rely on our buddies in the middle east for our oil needs. Now if we can just produce enough of the jatropha plants and algae to keep us flying....... Pretty soon their won't be enough algae refining plants and we'll be hedging jatropha plant futures.....:p

The good news about jatropha is it's easy to grow...if "JPEC" cuts production, other folks will just grow more. It will be nice to have a sustainable fuel.

But the flight didn't prove everything...there could still be long term wear-and-tear issues on fuel systems and engines, and extreme cold weather ops will need to be demonstrated also. Hopefully it will prove to be safe in all environments.

The downside about bio-fuels...they generally have less energy density than petro-fuel. This means less range on a full tank.

stupid question:

Does a full tank of Biofuel weigh the same as a full tank of JetA?

thanks

Not stupid at all. Typical bio diesel is about 8% heavier than jet A. This doesn't help the range issue either. The reduced specific energy and increased weight combined would probably cost you about 10% of your range compared to jet A. Not great, but most airplanes could still serve the routes they were designed for, but possibly not with a full load.

puts out less energy and weighs more. bummer.

However, we are not importing this stuff from the Middle East or Venezuela so win win!:D

Time to buy a chunk of land where this stuff grows and plant some trees. Maybe the goverment will give some loans since this is contributing to lowering our dependance on foreign oil.

Pollutes less too, and can probably be produced for less than $100/bbl, maybe a lot less...and the price will not be subject to manipulation or as much speculation.

When the IATA folks started looking into alternative Jet A, they set a number of criteria in addition to the obvious technical compatibility issues...

- The new fuel has to be low-emissions.
- It has to be sustainable.
- It has to NOT compete with foodstock for people or animals.
- It has to NOT compete with arable land used to grow foodstock.

This is where Jatropha came in...

- It has a high oil content, so it's good bio-fuel stock.
- It cannot be eaten by people or any domestic animal (including camels!)
- It thrives on useless desert land.

They did their homework on this one...

I read in at least 1 news article that the freeze point of the jatropha blend is actually colder than that of Jet A. This is another benefit of this formula and appears to be one of the large differences with other biofuels that have a much warmer freeze point. Apparently the freeze point issue has been one of the big stumbling blocks for using biofuels for aviation.