Algae biofuel is one of the most promising alternative fuels on the market – so far we’ve seen cars and even planes adapted to run on it. The main drawback thus far has been high production costs and energy usage – until now. Using a new “cost-effective harvesting method” featuring microbubbles, a team from the University of Sheffield believe they have found a way to make algae a more commercially viable fuel source.
Research into developing insect cyborgs for use as first responders or super stealthy spies has been going on for a while now. Most research has focused on using batteries, tiny solar cells or piezoelectric generators to harvest kinetic energy from the movement of an insect’s wings to power the electronics attached to the insects. Now a group of researchers at Case Western Reserve University have created a power supply that relies just on the insect’s normal feeding.
Recognizing that using a real insect is much easier than starting from scratch to create a device that works like an insect, Case Western Reserve chemistry professor teamed up with graduate student Michelle Rasmussen, biology professor Roy E. Ritzmann, chemistry professor Irene Lee and biology research assistant Alan J. Pollack to develop an implantable biofuel cell to provide usable power for the various sensors, recording devices, or electronics used to control an insect cyborg.
Shipping giant Maersk has been making a number on interesting efficient improvements in its containers ships as of late, and now is testing algae-biofuels as well: Right now the Maersk Kalmar is en route from Northern Europe to India running a blend of algae-biofuel and petroleum-based fuel.
During the 30-day trip, over 6500 nautical miles, a variety of blend percentages will be tested, including testing how well the ship performs on 100% biofuel. Emissions of greenhouse gases as well as particulate pollution are being monitored along the route as part of the test as well.
The U.S. Navy’s Self Defense Test Ship has successfully arrived at its port, powered by an alternative fuel blend. Docking at Naval Surface Warfare Center Port Hueneme, it completed a 17 hour test voyage which ended at 10:37 a.m. this morning. The decommissioned Spruance-class Paul F. Foster destroyer was converted to run on 50% algae-derived fuel.
The Alaska Air Group is joining the commercial aviation biofuel movement.
The airline launched two flights yesterday running on a blend consisting of 20 percent biofuel and 80 percent petroleum-based fuel. The sustainable biofuel used for the blend was made from cooking oil.
One flight was via a Boeing 737-800 plane from Seattle to Washington, D.C., and the other a Bombardier Q400 plane headed from Seattle to Portland, Ore. Both planes were flown as part of a program to fly more than 75 flights on a cooking oil-based biofuel blend within the coming weeks on Alaska Air’s Alaskan Airlines and Horizon Air carriers.
Vowing to halve its carbon footprint, Virgin Atlantic Airways has announced it plans to begin flying commercial routes by 2014 using a waste gas-based jet fuel. LanzaTech and Swedish Biofuels – partners in the green aviation waste fuel venture – report they are creating this new fuel by capturing, fermenting and chemically converting waste gases from industrial steel production. Virgin Atlantic adds this refining process recycles gases that are typically burned and released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, adding that this overcomes many of the controversial land use issues often associated with producing biofuels.
This development is expected to take the airline beyond its pledge of a 30 percent carbon reduction per passenger kilometer by 2020.
The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is estimated at 380 ppm and that needs to come down to 350 ppm to limit the global warming to 2 degrees Celsius. And most scientists agree is the acceptable upper limit. A higher temperature would cause the world’s ocean levels to rise and inundate coastal regions all over the world, threatening many dense human habitations. The global CO2 emissions in 2010 were 40 billion tons and continue to rise as more fossil fuel burning power plants are built. Many growing industrial activities and the rising vehicles on the road all continue to emit CO2. This growth cannot be halted as the population from the poorer parts of the world attempts to lift its standards of living.
Seaweed holds promise as more than an ingredient in a purifying face mask or a maki roll.
So say researchers at E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., which alongside Seattle-based Bio Architecture Lab (BAL) has secured $9 million from the Department of Energy to explore seaweed’s potential as a feedstock for biobutanol, an advanced biofuel.
Their venture appears to have largely cornered the current market. Though more than 200 companies have looked into algae-based biofuels, DuPont and BAL say most others have shied away from using macroalgae, like kelp.
The UK’s first commercial flight to be powered by biofuels will take off on Thursday, heading to the Canary Islands and into a storm of controversy.
Thomson Airways’ 14.25 service from Birmingham airport to Arrecife, on the island of Lanzarote, will be a scheduled flight like any other – except that one of the plane’s engines will run on a mixture of standard fuel and biofuel made from waste cooking oil.
But while Thomson, the airline business of TUI Travel, hailed the flight as the start of a new era that would take aviation beyond fossil fuels, environmental campaigners slammed the pilot project as a gimmick that would end up harming the environment.
The Navy has reached a milestone in the quest to gain energy independence with the first unmanned biofueled flight of an MQ-8B Fire Scout at Webster Field in St. Inigoes, Md. The unmanned helicopter was fueled with a combination of JP-5 aviation fuel and plant-based camelina.
The MQ-8B Fire Scout Vertical Take-Off and Landing Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle provides critical situational awareness, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR), and targeting data to the forward deployed warfighter. Fire Scout is designed to operate from all air capable ships and is currently providing ISR support during its first-land based deployment in U.S. Central Command area of responsibility.
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