http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071015/tc_nm/...irgin_fuel_dc_1 In the meantime, Virgin will be conducting a test jet flight on renewable fuels. "Early next year we will fly one of our 747s without passengers with one of the fuels that we have developed," Branson told the annual conference.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Oct 15 2007, 10:05 PM) [snapback]526154[/snapback]</div> I wonder how much fossil fuel equivalences it will take to generate one bio jet fuel equivalence? Burn dirty fuel just so you can burn not so dirty fuel? Sounds kind of hoaxy to me. Does brazil burn bio jet fuel? If anyone has the infrastructure to make that work, it would be them.
How many kids will starve because of the acres of land converted for biofuel instead of food? And the air isn't even any cleaner!! (apparently it can smell of yummy french fries though!)
Biofuels address the issue of greenhouse gasses by being carbon-neutral. But as devil's Advocate points out, if they are produced from food crops like corn, or other crops grown on land presently producing food, they will affect the market price of food. Biofuels can be a positive contribution if they are made from materials presently being discarded or burned as trash. But a better path is the capture of energy not presently being used. E.g. most of the sunlight falling on buildings in warm climates is either uselessly reflected, or absorbed as heat, which then must be extracted at great cost by air conditioning. Solar cells on those buildings would be a double-win. We need to be capturing new, renewable energy, not diverting present food-producing resources into energy. The one exception to my argument against biofuels is post-consumer bio-diesel. It's better to burn that used french-fry oil than to dump it in a landfill. Of course, it would be better yet to burn down all those McDs. America would be healthier and Brazil could stop cutting down its rain forests to produce cheap beef.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(burritos @ Oct 16 2007, 01:46 PM) [snapback]526468[/snapback]</div> I would be far more concerned about the cold flow properties of biofuels. So far, biodiesel hasn't had a spectacular record in that regard. Most JetA is preblended with Prist to ensure reliable flow and performance properties down to -50 C. The standard additives are usually not compatible with biofuels <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Oct 16 2007, 05:59 PM) [snapback]526587[/snapback]</div> Sssshhhhhh! Don't scare folks with the facts!
