Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Are biofuel flights good news for the environment? | Leo Hickman

7:23 AM | Posted by ProJ | | Edit Post

Airlines

beginning to test biofuel on commercial routes, but "sustainable" alternative to kerosene remain controversial

biofuels are actually flying a good thing for the environment? How can we produce enough biofuels to provide for all flights? And not only consume valuable land that could be used to grow food instead?

Granger, e-mail


Last week I saw the first commercial flight powered partly by biofuels take off from a UK airport. The TUI Travel Boeing 757 flights from Birmingham to Lanzarote took off and landed smoothly reported. There were no technical modifications in terms of both engines fed with a 50/50 mixture of Jet A1 and a conventional "hydrotreated esters and fatty acids" fuel made from used cooking oil. TUI Travel, said the fuel supplied by a Dutch company called SkyNRG and that the fuel was "approved as sustainable by the WWF and the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels."
  • judging by the growing number of airlines around the world by announcing this type of flight, and the imminent EU to include aviation in its emissions trading scheme It seems that biofuels can play an important role in the future of aviation. Aviation - unlike land transport alternatives - is totally dependent on fuel with the energy density offered by a fossil fuel such as kerosene. In place of plug-and-play for kerosene biofuels seems the only viable alternative at present. After all, we can not electrify our aircraft or the power of nuclear fission (or not in a way that is accepted by paying passengers) - and most operating aircraft or buy today have a life expectancy at least 40 years
  • But "sustainable" biofuels are used on airplanes? And only serve to raise the price of food? To rely solely on hand cooking oil Second seems absurd. However, the aviation industry says it is only using this source of biofuel for demonstration purposes. TUI Travel, for example, said he is considering the use of biofuels made from the "purge of the family of plants as well as camelina." Meanwhile, Virgin has announced a "breakthrough" in the production of biofuels, with a fuel made from "exhaust retired industrial production of steel." And some developers say aviation fuel are researching algae-based biofuels.
Or maybe all this talk about biofuels is a convenient distraction, with aviation, said the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions, we must focus instead on reduce the number of aircraft that we send in the sky? Or is it crucial for us all aviation deserves a special exempt status because it has long enjoyed when it comes to fuel taxes and VAT?

This column is an experiment in crowd-sourcing issue of a reader, so please let us know your thoughts below (as opposed to e-mail) and, citing Figures for the support of your points, please provide a link to the source. It also invites stakeholders to participate in the debate, too.

. Please send your question to its environment ask.leo.and.lucy @ guardian.co.uk.
Or my message on Twitter @ LeoHickman

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