Airbus Adds Massive China Link to Global Biofuels Circle
by Ben Sandilands (Crikey) With the West Texas Crude oil price at well under $US 100 per barrel and the cross over price for aviation grade biofuels largely assigned to the $US 140-150 barrel proxy value, the announcement of a deal between Airbus and China’s Sinopec company to develop carbon neutral alternatives to kerosene might seem easy to see as being of low importance.
But it is the biggest such co-operative pact to be struck by Airbus which has similar research and development arrangements in Australia, Latin America, the Middle East and Europe.
One of the critical features of biofuel alternatives to standard fossil carbon releasing fuels for aviation or any other purposes is that they are made close to the airports, factories or locality distribution networks that require them, not shipped up to half way around the world adding substantial inefficiency and cost to the process.
…However the short term consequences could be that as bio-fuels rise in availability and decline in price they may suppress price rises in traditional oil based fuels, a feed back effect that will also determine the time line for the inevitable ascendancy of alternative fuels. READ MORE
