The creation of a sustainable, “bio-derived” aviation industry for Australia and New Zealand can be achieved within two decades, a report by Australia’s top science agency says.

According to the report by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), the region has enough sources of non-food biomass — including crop and forestry residue, municipal waste, and algae — to support a local jet fuel industry and make the region less reliant on imported aviation fuels.

In addition to cutting aviation-related greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent, the report projects that in Australia the amount spent spent annually on imported fossil fuels could be slashed by $2 billion.

By 2050, the report predicts, about 50 percent of an airline’s fuels could come from biofuels.

But while the bio-derived industry will ultimately be commercially independent, the report says government support will be critical in establishing a supportive market structure and the development of refining plants.

Article appearing courtesy Yale Environment 360.

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Researchers in the Middle East are developing a technology they say will convert saltwater-tolerant crops into jet fuel, creating a biofuel that doesn’t consume huge amounts of fresh water or take land away from food crops.

The Masdar Institute in the United Arab Emirates is creating a demonstration farm that will use a system called integrated seawater agriculture, in which seawater would be transported via canal to a desert-based farm that combines fish and shrimp farming with cultivation of mangrove trees and salicornia, whose seeds can be converted into fuel.

The effluent from the fish farming will be used to fertilize the salicornia plants, which are grown in saltwater-irrigated fields, said Scott Kennedy, the project leader. The runoff of that irrigation, which by that point would be even saltier, would be used to grow the saltwater-tolerant mangrove trees.

The oil-rich salicornia seeds would then be processed into biofuel suitable for blending in jet fuel, researchers said.

One potential challenge for the project, experts noted, is the damage that high salt levels will likely inflict on machinery used to harvest the salicornia.

Article appearing courtesy Yale Environment 360.

photo: gilus_pl

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A Qatar Airways flight from London to Qatar has become the first passenger plane to be powered by cleaner-burning natural gas that was converted to kerosene.

“Today’s flight opens the door to an alternative to oil-based aviation fuel,” said Malcom Brinded, international executive director of Royal Dutch Shell, which is partnering with Qatar Petroleum to produce so-called gas-to-liquid (GTL) kerosene from Qatar’s abundant natural gas reserves.During the five-hour flight, the Qatar Airways Airbus A340-800 jet was powered by a 50-50 blend of GTL kerosene and conventional oil-based kerosene jet fuel. An Airbus spokesman called the flight “a major breakthrough which brings us closer to a world where fuels made from feedstocks such as wood-chip waste and other biomass is available for commercial aviation.”

The spokesman predicted that by 2030, 30 percent of jet fuel would be derived from GTL or biofuels. Shell and Qatar Petroleum are building a plant in Qatar capable of producing one million tons of GTL kerosene annually.

Article appearing courtesy of Yale Environment 360.

[photo credit: Flickr]

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Does that headline grab you? If not, these numbers should:

If that has not grabbed your attention yet, consider that in January of this year, Continental Airlines completed a test flight using a biofuel mixture, which included fuel derived from algae. The test flight yielded a 1.1 percent increase in fuel efficiency compared to a jet engine using traditional jet fuel.

That isn’t exactly a great leap forward, but achieving incremental increases in fuel efficiency coupled with the latest engine technology, as well as use of new materials in aircraft production, such as the Boeing 787, could signal a dynamic shift for the airline industry.Leaders of the G-20 agreed in Pittsburgh to commit to phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies in the medium-term. While no specifics were mentioned on how this policy will be implemented or how long “medium-term” actually means, this commitment signals a recognition by the G-20 that such subsidies inhibit the growth of clean tech industries.

In addition to the massive investment that Exxon and similarly situated companies have thrown into the algae arena and the policy shift by the G-20, there is growing desire by Congress to stimulate investment in algae.

Senate Bill 1250, currently in the Senate Finance Committee, proposes to add a tax credit for producers of algae-based biofuels. The language of the Algae-based Renewable Fuel Promotion Act of 2009 seeks to add algae-based biofuel as part of the cellulosic biofuel producer tax credit (Internal Revenue Code 40). Under this section, if the legislation were to pass, producers of algae-based biofuels would be entitled to a tax credit of $1.01 for each gallon of qualified algae-based biofuel production.

For purposes of the tax credit, “qualified algae-based biofuel production’ means any algae-based biofuel produced by the taxpayer which is sold to another person or used by the producer: (1) for use in the production of a qualified algae based biofuel mixture (in that other person’s trade or business); (2) for use by the buyer as a fuel in that person’s trade or business; or (3) who sells the algae based biofuel at retail.

The Senate bill also provides producers of algae-based biofuels with bonus depreciation for property which is used in the United State to produce algae-based biofuels.

It seems clear that without the massive capital investment of big oil companies, pilot projects and test facilities to determine whether algae-based biofuels can scaled up would be very difficult to construct. It may also take Big Oil’s lobbying efforts to obtain tax credits for the algae-based biofuel industry.

Moreover, the ultimate success of algae-based biofuels may largely depend on the vast distribution networks of big oil companies. In other words, algae and Big Oil are inextricably linked, for better or for worse.

[photo credit: Flickr]

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