Like to fly? We’ll be able to fly in the future and not have a huge carbon footprint. SolveClimate reports that Airlines might be flying on Biofuel within 5 years!  That seems very optimistic to me, given the fact that jets use an immense amount of fuel. Where will we get all the plants?  Algae is one of the answers and a big reason this seems plausible.

“Just a few years ago, the idea of replacing kerosene-based jet fuel with renewable fuel from plants seemed out of the question. The cost of producing such alternative fuels dwarfed that of traditional jet A-grade fuel, and moving a severely carbon-intensive industry toward cleaner fuels would only happen if the economics worked out.

A 2008 spike in oil prices and a global economic slowdown later, and suddenly bio-jet fuel isn’t just back on the table, it might be in your airplane’s engines in the next four or five years.

“Generally speaking, three years ago I think many people felt that it was something on paper and it was a bit of a pipe dream,” said Steve Lott, the head of corporate communications for the airline industry group International Air Transport Association, or IATA. “The tests we’ve seen in the past two years or so have definitely moved the ball forward and accelerated the process forward toward certification.”

The tests Lott mentioned are a series of flights by various airlines around the world demonstrating the capability of so-called “drop-in” biofuels. These fuels, derived from second-generation biomass sources like algae and the jatropha plant, can power a jet engine with no modification to the engine or plane, saving the industry from the economic impossibility of upgrading the worldwide airplane fleet.”

Continental Airlines, for example, has already flown a demonstration flight using a 50-50 blend of kerosene and algae-based fuel in one engine of a Boeing 737, and Lott said there was even some indication that of the plane’s two engines the biofuel-powered one performed slightly better than the kerosene engine.. . . . “

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