Tinker, Tailor, Sailor, Fly: Aviation Biofuels Advance, Attract Opponents over Costs
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) As Honeywell and Agrisoma collaborate to pioneer aviation biofuels from a new carinata-based feedstock, critics wonder exactly why the military is paying so much for the biofuels it is utilizing for tests.
In Illinois, UOP announced that Honeywell Green Jet Fuel will be used for the world’s first comprehensive test program using a new biofeedstock specifically designed for biofuel production, new Resonance Energy Feedstock.
Tinker The test flights, to be done in Canada with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and Agrisoma Biosciences Inc., will also feature in-flight collection of emissions by a trailing aircraft, allowing for later evaluation of the Green Jet Fuel’s emissions performance.
…Tailor Resonance is a new industrial oilseed crop, derived from Brassica carinata, with an oil profile optimized for use in the biofuel industry, specifically biojet fuel.
…Soldier Meanwhile, aviation biofuels for military purposes have been receiving lots of flak in the popular press. The issue? Primarily, cost.
“The Navy has received pressure from Congress,” said a report in DODBuzz, “to justify it’s energy conservation efforts since a RAND report was published in January stating that biofuels will not help the Navy for at least another decade.”
“[Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Energy, Tom Hicks] estimated that the average energy project for the Navy takes six to eight years before the service sees a return on its investment….”
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus countered, ““If we made all of our decisions on the cost of a new technology, we wouldn’t have nuclear submarines today. We wouldn’t have nuclear carriers today. We wouldn’t have computers today because they’re a lot more expensive than typewriters,” he said in an interview.” READ MORE and MORE (Canadian Biomass Magazine) and MORE (Biorefining Magazine) and MORE (Delta Farm Press)
