EK413 From Australia, joined Nov 2003, 3894 posts, RR: 4 Posted (1 year 1 month 6 days 4 hours ago) and read 1436 times:
Hello All
Qantas will launch Australia's first commercial flight powered by aviation biofuel. Flight QF1211 will depart Sydney at 10:20am and arrive in Adelaide at 12:05pm. To mark the occasion, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce will host a media conference this morning from 8:30-9:00am in the Sydney hangar.
legacyins From United States of America, joined Aug 2003, 1827 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (1 year 1 month 6 days 3 hours ago) and read 1389 times:
It seems a new carrier is announcing this every other month. VS, KL, EK and even CA have done these flights over the past few years.nothing ever came of them. Just a PR stunt, IMO.
DocLightning From United States of America, joined Nov 2005, 16807 posts, RR: 57 Reply 2, posted (1 year 1 month 6 days 3 hours ago) and read 1306 times:
Quoting legacyins (Reply 1): It seems a new carrier is announcing this every other month. VS, KL, EK and even CA have done these flights over the past few years.nothing ever came of them. Just a PR stunt, IMO.
Yes and no. It's a research process. You can't just introduce biofuels fleet-wide overnight. However, Australia is a very good place to consider biofuel production. There is a lot of sunlight and a closed-loop algae system could do well, as could crops that can tolerate dry land, like jatropha.
With fossil fuel prices continuing their current behavior, I think that airlines will prefer the stability of biofuels and are hoping that prices will come down with increased infrastructure for production.
bps3458 From Australia, joined Oct 2006, 520 posts, RR: 1 Reply 3, posted (1 year 1 month 6 days 2 hours ago) and read 1236 times:
Heard same on ABC News Radio this morning. According to them it is a 50/50 mix between biofuel and regular aviation fuel and the cost of the biofuel is at this stage apparently 4 times higher than the regular aviation fuel.
No, it isn't. You don't do research on a scheduled airliner with paying pax. Research is done by engine manufacturers in engine test cells or on test aircrafts.
Quoting DocLightning (Reply 2): You can't just introduce biofuels fleet-wide overnight.
If you have biofuel fulfilling Jet A specs, then you just fill and go full steam overnight. Problem is that there is no such fuel available in any significant quantity.
Problems with biofuel are not on the consumer side, they are on the production side - that's where research is needed.
If we would replace present day consumption of fossil fuels with biofuels, using mature technology, and without starving a few billion people to death, then we need a couple of new Earth like planets to grow it.
Algae and the oceans are the only things which offer the scale needed, but the technology isn't there (yet).
As long as we cannot produce 100% biofuels, then it is pretty insane to spend a lot of energy on making the little we have into Jet A specs instead of using its full energy potential in less hi-tech applications such as domestic heating or electric power production.
Always keep your number of landings equal to your number of take-offs, Preben Norholm
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