Virgin To Do Aviation Ethanol?
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 11.17.05
Ever on the lookout for a marketing opportunity and bucking the status quo, Richard Branson, head honcho of the Virgin group, has announced his next likely venture: Renewable Jet Juice. "We are looking for alternative fuel sources. We are going to start building cellulosic ethanol plants (to make) fuel that is derived from the waste product of the plant," he said. "It is 100 per cent environmentally friendly and I believe it's the future of fuel, and over the next 20 or 30 years I think it actually will replace the conventional fuel that you get out of the ground." Currently there are four airlines under the Virgin banner, which gives a fleet of close to 100 aircraft, using about 700 million gallons (2,650 million litres) of fuel annually.
So one can understand why Richard might be keen to “replace some or all of that (with ethanol)" in the next handful or so years. Virgin do have some other environmental initiatives on the go, but most are just the usual good governance, like recycling office paper and toner cartridges. However their British trains do use 'reverse thrust' traction motors to brake, which apparenting generates electricity for national grid supply, as a side benefit. More eco Virgin bits here. The ethanol piece via ::ABC Online
this news intrigues you, then chances are so would our previous Q&A on Biodiesel Airplanes.
Virgin To Do Aviation Ethanol?
I believe you will find that Richard Branson is entering the ethanol / bioethanol production field as a separate business having nothing to do with aviation.
Jet fuel is a high grade kerosene - a petroleum product (somewhat related to diesel fuel).
Biodiesel, made from various plant oils, is being studied as an adjunct to regular Jet fuel.
Ethanol - (ethyl alcohol) cannot be used in any fashion as jet fuel. Ethanol - regrdless of how it is made is very useful as a gasoline extender. Ethanol gasoline blends are sold in several states in the U.S. for motor vehicle use. Ethanol and gasoline are not used in Jets.
Cordially,
Joe-in-Texas
joegreene@terrasolbiofuels.com
The Green Party in Pennsylvania has come out against ethanol plants here due to the tremendous amount to toxic water waste. Does anyone have stats on the pollution from the waste from these versus, what say, the waste from hog farms or other potential sources for ethanol refinement?
Also, it would be great to know if there are any sorts of cleaner ethanol refineries.
Thanks :)
A jetliner burning ethanol would be able to travel travel only about 55-60% as far as it could fly using Jet A or kerosene. The range of his airliners will be substantially lower burning ethanol.
That might not work out so well on a heavily-loaded, VirginAtlantic flight from London to New York into the prevailing west wind. Even if Branson could modify the fuel systems and engines of his fleet to burn ethanol, many of the long-range, non-stop flights VirginAtlantic now flies would be impossible because of the reduced range his airplanes would have.
While commercial aircraft burn Jet A, many military aircraft use Jet B or JP4 / JP8 which is a wide-cut fuel consisting of about 50% gasoline. Unfortunately, aircraft need the most BTU's per pound to get the required range, and kerosene is the best available. Baylor University did a study using bio-diesel as a fuel to determine if the emissions could be reduced. This experiment was successful, but the commercial viability is still in question. My daughter is conducting an experiment to see if ethanol can be used as a substitute in Jet B. I'll post again with the results.
LOS ANGELES -- MEMS USA, Inc. (OTCBB:MEMS), today announced an investor conference call to be held at 4:15 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Monday, April 25, 2005. MEMS USA's President, Dr. James Latty, will host the call.
MEMS USA, Inc., a California-based professional engineering and technical services company, recently (February 8, 2005) announced that British Columbia will be the site of the first Can-Am Ethanol One biomass-to-ethanol processing plant. Can-Am Ethanol One is an equal partnership between MEMS and Accelon Energy Systems, a Canadian corporation which has been formed to design, engineer, build, own, operate and maintain the biomass-to-ethanol processing plant in British Columbia. The budget for this project is USD$150,000,000.
Merrill Lynch has committed to assist the Company in analyzing, structuring, negotiating and securing debt financing for Can-Am Ethanol One. In that capacity, the Global Investment Markets & Investment Banking Department of Merrill Lynch will function as financial advisor in lease negotiations and financial structuring and as senior manager or placement agent for any offering of debt securities sold by or on behalf of the Company.
Of course he may not be thinking about ethanol at all if you treat the cellulose in wood like coal and use a coal to liquids process it should be pretty easy to produce aviation kerosene... which would get round a lot of the the problems of ethanol freezing at high altitudes, because its chemically different.
you can read more at the big biofuels blog. check it out.