Virgin flies biofueled jet from London
Posted by: Michael Holdcroft in Biofuel, Biomass Energy, Greenhouse Gas
Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic did a test flight with biofuel from London last Sunday, the 24th of February. Considering there was no alternative for aviation kerosene in the past, this was a important step to find a way to keep air travel viable for the future.
I see a couple of problems with the use of Biofuel. First of which is the huge amount of oil needed. This would mean that even more natural forests would be lost to the development of plantations. This would further cause increased loss of Biodiversity and reduce the regulating effect that rain forests have on world climate.
The second point is, the airlines might reduce the amount of CO2 that aircraft produce, but what quantities of the greenhouse gas would be produced with the refinement and transport of the Biofuel?
In comparison with the use of Kerosene, which is derived from crude oil and continually increases the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, Biofuel would would just release the amount of CO2 which was absorbed by the plants which supply the oil.
A viable alternative aircraft fuel is certainly important to enable future air travel to exist. The question is, can a viable alternative be found, even before crude oil supplies have diminished? And if yes, at what cost to the planet?
No Rating Tags: Biofuel, Test Flight, Virgin Atlantic
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February 29th, 2008 at 5:10 am
Dear Mike, I think that the Virgin Airlines test with biofuel is really nothing more than a publicity stunt. I can’t see it being taken seriously by the aviation industy on the whole because not only would it cause deforestation for the production of oil rich plants, it would also mean the mass commandeering of arable land for the same purpose. At the same time that we are seeing an increase of the demand for food in China by some 20%-30%, the worlds resourses are already hard pushed to cope.
Any real fuel alternative will have to come from the breakdown of water into hydrogen and oxygen (a technology that is already being seriously tested by NASA). With this option there are three important facts to note. One, is that the by using this technology your by product will be water, that’s right, the very same substance that you used to start off with. Two, is that there will have to be an about turn in the approach to fuel at large, (so there won’t be fat cat industrial magnets making a killing on carbon fuel!). At best there will be companies suplying distillation and desalination services. These could even be in place at airports.
The main problem for any new step like this is to overcome the lobby of interested parties who would fight hard to resist change. Change will come, the question is when and at what cost.