flying green on bio-fuel – maybe? space missions · aviation bio-fuel. • this is the ﬁrst...

Space Missions

Summary of Plug-in 2008 Symposium : Trevor Williams, Mech.Eng., IESVic, UVIC. Contact: [email protected]

Trevor Williams MSc.(Man.),B.Eng.(Aero.) www.greenmuze.com PhD Candidate Integrated Energy Systems (IESVic) www.iesvic.uvic.ca Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Victoria [email protected] Room EOW 233 Office tel:250 721 8938

Trevor Williams PhD candidate specialising in renewable energy, power grid modeling & plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. He has a bachelors in Aeronautical Engineering, a Masters in Management Science and over 23 years international experience in the space industry, having worked on Earth observation, & telecommunications satellites.

Flying Green on Bio-fuel – Maybe?

Space Missions


Flying Green on Bio-fuel – Which?

Bio-fuels: 1st-gen: corn, soy, palm, sugarcane. •  Have hydrocarbons in their sugars, starches & oils •  Oil from fermentation or mixing of trans-esters. •  Neither energy efficient, nor sustainable, nor price efficient

without major subsidies & have adverse effect upon food prices.

2nd-gen: cellulosic materials •  Non-edible parts of foodstocks (corn stalks, husks, etc.) as

well as non-food plants (switchgrass & jatropha). •  Process wood chips to make bio-diesel while using

leftover carbon rich residue for fertilizer & claimed to be carbon negative.

Space Missions


Flying Green on Bio-fuel – Which?

Bio-fuels: 3rd-gen: Algae. •  Algae : 30x Oil as any soy or plant based feedstock grown on

agricultural land. •  Grown in any location – ideally warm, sunny & brackish water. •  Can be used to purify water & produce oil simultaneously 4th-gen: Microbes •  Genetically altered to digest woodchips & wheat straw •  Digestive byproduct is hydrocarbon rich very similar to

petroleum. •  Claimed to be lower in carbon & sulfur content than regular

fossil fuels and the overall energy & carbon emission process is claimed to be almost carbon neutral.

Space Missions


Airline industry GHG reduction: 1.  Reduce aircraft weight by removing

heavy cutlery & duty-free & no newspapers

2.  Charging people more for their excess baggage

3.  Flying slower 4.  Buying more fuel efficient planes –

saving 20% (787) of consumption. 5.  Now they are experimenting with bio-

fuel alternatives.


•  aviation industry hope to use biofuels within five years. •  "The challenge will be to produce it in an efficient way in the quantities

we need” – Continental Airlines.

Space Missions


Flying Green on Bio-fuel – Problems

Problems bio-fuels must overcome: 1.  Show high-octane bio-fuel without fuel freezing at high altitude & cold

temperatures. 2.  Aircraft demand highly refined, high energy density fuel in large

quantities. 3.  Cost - $$ and GHG from plant/algae/bacteria-to-plane.

Space Missions


Flying Green on Bio-fuel – Who?

Who has flown bio-fuels: 1.  Virgin Airlines 747 flew Heathrow to Amsterdam

•  babassu and coconut oil : 150,000 coconuts for 20% of the fuel mix in one of four fuel tanks - publicity stunt.

•  Branson later revealed plans to use algae for bio-fuels as this would not necessarily involve using food-producing acreage to grow the algae, unlike coconuts!

2.  Air New Zealand (Dec 3rd, 08) 747-400 flew with one engine fuelled by a blended mix of aviation gasoline & refined jatropha oil.

3.  Continental Boeing 7th Jan.09 737-800 for 90 min, 50-50 blend of biofuel (algae and jatropha) •  First US carrier & first twin-engine commercial aircraft •  Tested at 38,000ft (11.6km), including a mid-flight engine

shutdown. 4.  Air France, KLM planning on flights this year.

Space Missions


1.  ANZ, Terasol Energy, Rolls-Royce and Boeing, proposed jatropha plant as being a possible sustainable source of aviation bio-fuel.

•  This is the first large capacity processing of a bio-product into jet fuel that is being touted as being commercially feasible.

2.  Air France, KLM and Continental Airlines hope to save money (bio-fuels around US$43 a barrel versus about US$120 for aviation gas)

Flying Green on Which Bio-fuel?

Space Missions


Flying Green on Bio-fuel – Who?

Pressure Groups: 1.  Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group.

•  BOEING, Air France, Air New Zealand, ANA (All Nippon Airways), Cargolux, Gulf Air, Japan Airlines, KLM, SAS, Virgin Atlantic Airways

•  Environmental non-government organizations (NGOs) - Natural Resources Defense Council &World Wide Fund for Nature. Interesting group of bed-fellows!

Space Missions


•  Babassu palm tree grows to about 20metres.

•  makes about 250 gallons of oil per acre.

•  Grows mostly in Brazil and other tropical locations.


Space Missions


Jatropha plant: 1.  can grow in poor soils and

marginal land 2.  yields four times more fuel per

hectare than soybean. 3.  Jatropha plant is a tropical plant

that grows on non-arable land. The plants produce seeds that have about 40% oil content but even so it only would give about 70 gallons of fuel an acre (according to Wikipedia).


Space Missions


Algae and Bacteria Oil Algae is: 1.  fast growing 2.  does not compete with food

crops for arable land 3.  yields up to 30 times more fuel

than standard energy crops.


Space Missions


1.  LS9 (Silicon Valley): Oil 2.0 •  Using genetically modified E-coli bacteria (warm-blooded animal

intestines) •  Claim that their oil production processes are also carbon negative •  Vinod Khosla (Sun Micro-systems) support them.

2.  Amyris is another biotech company •  Gates Foundation helped some years ago to make cheaper anti-

malarial drugs •  Now pursuing their own bio-engineered fuel production using sugar

cane as feedstock for their algae to make bio-diesel & jet-fuel substitutes.

3.  Synthetic Genomics •  Craig Venter (one of the first to map the human genome) researching

genetically engineered organisms that can feed on carbon dioxide & produce oil.

Flying Green on Bio-fuel – Maybe - Who?

Space Missions


What do we want? 1.  Less air-travel GHGs. 2.  Plant-to-plane GHG analysis: •  Bio-fuels reduce the greenhouse gas products coming out of the

engine exhaust but still have to account for all emissions •  Growing, collection, transporting & processing bio-fuel feedstock.

Is it Green? A 747 example: •  16 gallons of fuel to throttle down the runway & take-off •  120 gallons to get to cruising altitude •  3.5 gallons per km when cruising •  26,250 gallons to fly the 7500kms from London to Vancouver. •  So one 20% bio-fuel flight needs about 75 acres of jatropha plant

seed, a year to grow the actual seed & all the energy needed to process it.

Flying Green – Maybe Not?

Space Missions


The Holy Grail of Bio-fuel: 1.  Algae and bacteria may help offset fossil fuel use 2.  May start digesting some of the unwanted waste, including even the

carbon dioxide emitted from coal power plants. 3.  The company that first gets to commercial scale production at

reasonable costs of around $50 a barrel: •  are likely to be the new Sheiks of world oil •  the saviors of global climate change •  immortalized in world history •  as well as become very wealthy.

Flying Green – Maybe? Maybe Not Maybe?

Space Missions


Any other options: 1.  Algae seem more viable : 5000 to 20000 gallons per acre each year but

still seems grossly inadequate given all the planes flying around the planet on a daily basis.

2.  Hydrogen – impossible to carry the volume required & minor crashes might be very risky!

3.  Coal derived fuel – Germany in WWII, South Africa during apartheid. Today - India, the US and China are seriously considering it – probably better than the Tar Sands but still not a solution.

4.  While experts work on it: •  Why not stay at home, live in the community you were born in, cruise

the world on the internet & chat to distant relatives with Skype or I-Chat

•  you will save a lot of money, time, aggravation at the airports, reduce greenhouse gases & help save the planet, not to mention all those bushes & trees the airlines want to harvest for bio-fuel.

Flying Green – Maybe Not?

flying green on bio-fuel – maybe? space missions · aviation bio-fuel. • this is the ﬁrst...

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