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05/16/2008: "Airbus and Algae: Why Biofuels Won't Cut It"
We noted yesterday aviation's uphill battle to replace tradititional and increasingly expensive jet fuel with alternative fuels. Today, Airbus and Honeywell announced a new project to provide one-third of aviation's fuel needs by 2030 using second-generation biofuels made from things like vegetable biomass and algae.
The problem is, even if the Airbus plan works exactly as expected, it won't make a difference in terms of aviation's emissions problem.
Today, aviation uses about 5 million barrels a day of jet kerosene. Assume healthy efficiency gains, and you could still see 12 million barrels a day of jet kero on the tarmac in 2030.
So what would the Airbus algae formula do? Substitute one-third of that, or 4 million. That leaves 8 million barrels a day of old-fashioned kerosene contrails in the sky - almost twice as much as today.
[ Biofuels burn just like fossil fuels... and leave pollutants as well. We're just prolonging the inevitable: the end of cheap growth. ]
http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2008/05/15/airbus-and-algae-why-biofuels-wont-cut-it/