Honeywell & Airbus To Turn Algae Into Jet Fuel

mystermarque alerts us to an announcement by Honeywell, JetBlue Airways, International Aero Engines, and Airbus about a program to develop jet fuel from algae and other biomass. They hope to supply nearly 1/3 of the demand for jet fuel from these sources by 2030. A Wall Street Journal blog points out that even if this program's goals are met, we will be worse off by 2030 in terms of jet kerosene released into the atmosphere, assuming that the rapid growth in the aviation sector continues apace.

Comments

dude

[circletimessquare]

putting carbon in the air that you took out of the air is better than putting carbon in the air that was buried in the ground

indeed, it's not ideal. but the best course is to gradually do better, not assume we can immediately jump to utopian society

furthermore, hydrogen power is very much of a "i'm a hipster in horned rimmed glasses who doesn't understand thermodynamics" kind of thing

when you convert from one energy form to another, you waste energy. its impossible not to. such that converting to difficult to store, dangerous, and difficult to transport hydrogen, and converting that to motion, with all of the wasted heat involved, is not ideal thermodynamically

batteries are better. again, still not ideal, as heavy and low density (energy wise) as they are, but they are still better than hydrogen

its just kind of funny your post, because to me hydrogen is very much and always has been the poster child cause of airheaded hipsters who know nothing about chemistry and physics

Re:Abandon this project?

[Toonol]

Here in Oregon, they go where they know loggers will be falling trees, and hide metal spikes in the trees. Those will snap chain saws chains, which you can imagine is not fun for the person holding the saw. Overusing the terrorism buzzword is a problem, but these freaks may deserve the label. They plot and act in order to inflict pain and death on civilians in order to further extremist political views.