Boeing Helping to Develop Algae-Powered Jet

jon_cooper writes "Air New Zealand, Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation and Boeing are working together to develop and test a bio-fuel derived from algae. Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation began operating in May last year after it met a request from the local council to deal with excess algae on sewage ponds. Boeing's Dave Daggett was reported this year as saying algae ponds totaling 34,000 square kilometers could produce enough fuel to reduce the net CO2 footprint for all of aviation to zero."

Comments

And in response...

[Kohath]

And in response, General Dynamics developed a cloud-powered submarine.

The irony wars have just been joined!

Re:Save the Fish

[Red Flayer]

One of the clearest signs of global warming (human-caused or otherwise) is an increase in algae using up waterborne oxygen and causing fish deaths.

Huh? Algae produces O2, it doesn't use it up. Algae growth becomes a concern due to global warming and related issues because it thrives in a high-carbon high-temperature environment.

The fish deaths are not due to oxygen deprivation from the algae; rather, some algae blooms produce toxins that kill off fish. In smaller waters (like ponds and slow-moving rivers) algae exerts downward pressure on fish populations by outcompeting other organisms in the fish's food web.

While low oxygen concentrations are sometimes observed in waters with a high algae content, this is typically due to low aeration and warm water.

Where to put it?

[Darlantan]

To all of you asking "Where would you put a pond the size of X nation!?!"

The same place you'd put a refinery large enough to refine every last drop of oil we use today: NOT IN ONE PLACE, DUMBASSES.

Is it really that hard to imagine that these ponds will be spread out over multiple areas? There are many large cities producing tons of the waste this stuff is supposed to thrive on, so logically the processing plants would be near them. Aside from that, it only makes sense to have your production facilities spread out so that one hurricane or whatever doesn't knock out the entire world's supply of jet fuel.

Along the same line of reasoning as the last reason, it also makes sense to have widely distributed production facilities so that you don't have to ship the final product halfway around the globe to serve, say, Indonesia.

serious response to funny post

[Analogy Man]

Airliners always takeoff from airports and (usually) land at them.

They refuel at these airports.

Airports are usually vast areas of grass interrupted by tarmac and a terminal.

Nobody wants to live under the clearways on either end of the runways anyway.

Most large airports are near urban centers that product loads of free nitrogen fertilizer (otherwise known as effluent).

Why not produce the fuel at the source - eliminating a significant amount of transportation and infrastructure?