USDA Awards $5 Million To Develop BioJet Fuel

Posted on September 28, 2011 by quest

Gevo, Inc., a leading renewable chemicals and advanced biofuels company, received a $5 million grant from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the development of biojet fuel from woody biomass and forest product residues. The award is a portion of a $40 million grant presented to the Northwest Advanced Renewables Alliance (NARA), a consortium led by Washington State University (WSU).”This is an opportunity to create thousands of new jobs and drive economic development in rural communities across America by building the framework for a competitively-priced, American-made biofuels industry,” said U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “Public-private partnerships like these will drive our nation to develop a national biofuels economy that continues to help us grow and out-compete the rest of the world while moving our nation toward a clean energy economy.”

NARA includes a broad consortium of scientists from universities, government laboratories and private industry. The WSU-led grant aims to address the urgent national need for a domestic biofuel alternative for U.S. commercial and military air fleets. The NARA project envisions developing a new, viable, aviation fuel industry using wood and wood waste in the Pacific Northwest, where forests cover almost half of the region. The project also will focus on increasing the profitability of wood-based fuels through development of high-value, biobased co-products to replace petrochemicals that are used in products such as plastics.

“The airline industry and the United States Department of Defense are eagerly looking for near-term alternatives to petroleum-based jet fuel,” said Patrick Gruber, Ph.D., CEO of Gevo. “Woody biomass has the potential to be a cost-effective and sustainable option for biorefineries. This project should help accelerate the commercial deployment of cellulosic biorefineries, grow the economy in rural America and contribute to home grown energy independence.” Gevo previously announced its progress to airline engine testing using starch derived isobutanol to jet fuel. Gevo expects to receive full fuel certification by 2013 from the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) for its biojet fuel.

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GREEN NEWS WALL

Biofuel Powering Blue Angels Air Show

Posted on September 3, 2011 by quest

By Andrew Johnson  - The Blue Angels’ F/A-18 Hornet aircraft are using a biofuel blend during their performances at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., Air Expo held tomorrow through Sept. 4. The Blue Angels’ Labor Day weekend performance is another demonstration of the Department of the Navy’s commitment to reducing fossil fuel use without compromising capability. All six Hornets will be powered by a 50/50 blend of conventional JP-5 jet fuel and a camelina-based biofuel. Camelina sativa is a member of the mustard plant family. Camelina plants grow from 1 to 3 feet tall, producing pods with many small, oily seeds inside.

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said the Navy and Marine Corps’ use of alternative energy sources addresses critical vulnerabilities and ultimately serves to improve America’s warfighting capability, while also increasing the nation’s energy efficiency.”Changing the kinds of fuels we use and the way we use them is critical to assuring the Navy and Marine Corps remain the most formidable expeditionary fighting force the world has ever known,” Mabus said. “The Department of the Navy will be taking another visible step toward testing biofuel in our aircraft when all six of the Blue Angels perform using the same 50/50 blend of drop-in biofuel we’ve used in so many of our other aircraft.”

The Labor Day performance is the ultimate demonstration to date of the Department of the Navy‘s commitment to reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil, as well as safeguarding the nation’s environment through the incorporation of cleaner, more sustainable and renewable energy sources. This initiative is one of many throughout the Navy and Marine Corps that will enable the Department of the Navy to achieve Mabus’ goals to improve energy security and efficiency afloat and ashore, increase energy independence, and help lead the nation toward a clean energy economy.

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Lufthansa Schedules Sustainable Biofuel Flights

Posted on July 21, 2011 by quest

Last week, Lufthansa launched a six-month biofuel trial on regular scheduled flights. Christoph Franz, Chairman and CEO of the Lufthansa Group, said: “Lufthansa is the first airline worldwide to use biofuel in scheduled daily flight operations. We are thus continuing to steadily implement our proven and successful strategy for sustainability.” A Lufthansa Airbus A321 with the registration D-AIDG will fly the Hamburg-Frankfurt-Hamburg route four times daily. One of its engines will run on a 50/50 mix of regular fuel and biosynthetic kerosene. The biofuel for jet engines has been approved by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). During the six months test run period, the use of biofuel will reduce CO2 emissions by up to 1,500 tonnes.

As air transport is the only mode of transport that will remain dependent upon liquid fuels for the foreseeable future, the aviation industry and the research community must develop and test alternatives. “Fossil raw materials are finite,” Franz cautioned. He added that next to reducing CO2 emissions the main aim of this long-term operational trial, was to examine the effects of biofuel on the maintenance and lifespan of aircraft engines. The biosynthetic kerosene used by Lufthansa is derived from pure biomass and consists of jatropha, camelina and animal fats. The fuel used by Lufthansa is produced by Neste Oil, a Finnish oil company. Neste has extensive experience in the production of biofuels and has been a successful partner of Lufthansa for many years. Suppliers must provide proof of the sustainability of their processes and meet the criteria stipulated by the European Parliament and the Council in the Renewable Energy Directive. Lufthansa guarantees that the production of its biofuel is not in direct competition with food production and that no rainforests are destroyed.

The use of biosynthetic kerosene is one element of the four-pillar climate protection strategy pursued by Lufthansa with a view to reducing overall CO2 emissions in the air transport sector. By combining a range of different measures – for example, ongoing fleet modernization, technology improvements to aircraft and engines, operational measures such as engine washing or the use of lighter materials and an improved infrastructure – Lufthansa aims to achieve the ambitious environmental goals set out in its strategy. The implementation of new technologies has seen Lufthansa improve its fuel efficiency by over 30 per cent since 1991. Source: Valere Tjolle , Sustainable Tourism Report

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Pilot Flies Landmark Biofuel 747 To Paris Airshow

Posted on June 21, 2011 by quest

By Kerry Reals: One of the pilots who flew the biofuel-powered Boeing 747-8 Freighter from Seattle to Le Bourget has described the landmark flight as uneventful, with nothing out of the ordinary to report.

Speaking to Flightglobal on board the aircraft, Captain Rick Braun said the fact that all four General Electric GEnx-2B engines were powered by a blend of 15% camelina-based biofuel and 85% kerosene had “no impact at all” on operations. The aircraft consumed the same amount of fuel as it would have done on the same flight using 100% kerosene, and the refuelling process took the same amount of time.

Boeing director of sustainable aviation fuels Darrin Morgan is hoping the “wow factor” of the flight – the first across the Atlantic of a large commercial jetliner with all four engines powered by sustainable jet fuel – will now be “replaced by the wow factor of airline customers starting revenue services [using biofuel blends].”Boeing could have used up to a 50/50 blend of camelina-based fuel and kerosene for the flight, but chose to use just 15% biofuel because “most airline customers won’t use higher blends than this at first”, said Morgan. The airframer chose to use camelina for the flight over other feedstocks simply because it “happened to be available, but there will be many options”, he added. “Going forward, we will use different blends. This is the next step.”

Camelina is a rotational crop, which in this case was grown in Montana. The goal is for each region to use locally available feedstocks.

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Verizon’s Sustainability Initiatives

LA Boost Power From Clean Renewable Energy

Posted on January 16, 2011 by quest

LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, joined by environmental leaders and representatives from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), to announce the achievement of a major milestone — providing 20% of the City’s power from renewable energy sources in 2010. Mayor Villaraigosa said, “When I became Mayor, I set a goal to generate 20% of the City’s power from renewable energy sources by 2010 and I am proud to say that we have achieved that goal. We went from worst to first and quadrupled our renewable energy portfolio in a few short years while also keeping our rates lower than other major utilities. Today’s announcement illustrates that the DWP is a national leader in cost-effective, environmentally responsible and reliable energy.” “This is a historic and substantial accomplishment for the Department of Water and Power and the City of Los Angeles,” said Austin Beutner, LADWP General Manager. “We need to continue to reduce the impact of DWP operations on the environment and do it in an economically sustainable manner.”

The 20% by 2010 goal has been achieved through a combination of major projects and power agreements made during the Mayor’s administration. In June 2009, LADWP began full operation of the Pine Tree Wind Power Plant — the nation’s largest wind farm owned by a municipal utility, in the Tehachapi Mountains. Wind power comprised nearly 50% of all LADWP’s renewable energy in 2010 with small hydro-electric contributing 30%, geothermal/biofuels, 22%, and solar, 1%.

Reaching this milestone is the latest in a series of significant achievements by LADWP to meet the goals of Mayor Villaraigosa’s GREEN LA Action Plan to lead the national fight against global warming. In conjunction with increasing renewables and energy efficiency, a key factor in reducing greenhouse gases and promoting a cleaner environment is ending reliance on coal-generated power. LADWP is currently making this transition away from coal and in 2010, only 39% of its power portfolio came from coal. LADWP is in the process of divesting of the Navajo Generating Station in Arizona by 2014, which will reduce carbon emissions by an additional 26%.

UNDERSTANDING SUSTAINABILITY

Biofuels take flight

Posted on November 29, 2010 by quest

Global airline leader Lufthansa is set to begin a six-month trial using biofuel on commercial flights. is set to begin a six-month trial using biofuel on commercial flights. Starting in April 2011 with an Airbus A321 the test program is scheduled on commercial flights of the Hamburg-Frankfurt-Hamburg route. The primary purpose of the project is to conduct a long-term trial to study the effect of biofuel on engine maintenance and engine life. “Lufthansa will be the world’s first airline to utilize biofuel in flight operations within the framework of a long-term trial. This is a further consistent step in a proven sustainability strategy, which Lufthansa has for many years successfully pursued and implemented,” said CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber.

At a joint press conference today, Lufthansa Chairman and CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber, with Peter Hinze, Parliamentary State Secretary and Government Aerospace Coordinator, and Professor Dr. Johann-Dietrich Wörner, Chairman of the Executive Board of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), presented a biofuel project planned by Lufthansa. The project is backed by the government within the framework of its aviation research program aimed at underpinning the sustainability of air traffic.

About 77 per cent of German aviation research funding (LUFO) is directly or indirectly related to the environment and sustainability. The Germans believe an integrated research approach offers the best chance of achieving the ambitious climate protection objectives by 2020 and, simultaneously, safeguarding the technological competitiveness of the German aviation industry.