Halophyte Biofuel For Aircraft?
Interesting…
A NASA scientist is confident that within five years commercial aircraft could be powered using a type of biofuel derived from saltwater plants, or halophytes, grown in desert areas and irrigated using sea water. While the concept may sound far-fetched, engine manufacturer General Electric says it is following developments in this area “with interest”, and a major oil company, which prefers to remain anonymous, says it is considering the idea to see how much benefit it has.
Dennis Bushnell, chief scientist at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia, says 22 countries are carrying out small experimental activities into the cultivation of halophytes for use in food production, although he admits “nobody is doing this type of biomass for aircraft” at this time. Nevertheless, Bushnell sees “no stoppers” to augmenting halophyte-derived biomass to produce biofuels capable of powering aircraft.
“This is far from evolutionary, it’s just outside people’s radar screens and the usual human reaction to this is to say that it’s impossible,” says Bushnell. “What’s nice about biofuel is that it can use the existing infrastructure used by the oil companies and can be available much sooner than hydrogen, which would require changes to infrastructure and is, therefore, much further into the future.”
Full article: Making the desert bloom - with fuel-yielding plants
Technorati Tags: biofuel, biodiesel, fuel, NASA, renewable energy, alternative energy, green fuels, aircraft, jet fuel
Written by Bentley on January 15th, 2007 with
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