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| Flying high with non-food biofuel |
| Leslie D'Monte & Aneesh Phadnis / Mumbai Jul 01, 2011, 00:07 IST |
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A couple of days earlier, KLM Royal Dutch became the first airline in the world to operate a commercial flight, carrying 171 passengers, on bio-kerosene produced from used cooking fuel oil.
Boeing was also closely involved in making this possible. KLM said it would be operating at least 200 flights to Paris on bio-kerosene in September.
KLM has highlighted a new trend. Aviation biofuels have been used in test flights by many airlines, seeking alternatives to fossil fuels in a bid to reduce costs. The aim is to halve emissions by 2050, compared to 2005 levels. The airlines include Air France, Virgin Atlantic, Lufthansa, JAL, Aeromexico, TAROM, Continental Airlines and Boeing.
The European aviation industry plans to achieve its goal by targeting two million tonnes of bio-kerosene use per year by 2020, and the International Air Transport Association is aiming for a six per cent mix of biofuels by 2020. Closer home, Kingfisher Airlines last year entered into a three-year agreement with Anna University, Chennai, for a research collaboration programme to explore alternative energy sources. The two sides are expected to work closely to develop biofuel for use in aircraft and ground vehicles used at airports.
Conventional jet fuel is made from kerosene (also called paraffin), which comes from crude oil and various other chemicals. Bio-kerosene is kerosene derived from biomass (living matter). It typically refers to organic material such as plants or animal fat, including agricultural and municipal waste products, but excluding food products. Biodiesel can be made from animal fats, including tallow, lard, poultry fat and fish oil. Bioethanol is made by fermenting the sugar components of plant materials and is made mostly from sugar and starch crops. It is widely used in the US and in Brazil.
Biofuel development in India centres primarily around jatropha plant seeds. Jatropha oil has been used in India for several decades as biodiesel and can be used directly after extraction (without refining) in diesel generators and engines. According to the International Energy Agency, biofuels have the potential to meet at least a quarter of world demand for transportation fuel by 2050. The Indian government identified 400,000 square km (98 million acres) where jatropha can be grown.
LAND DIVERSION
There is also a debate on alternative uses of land. Environmental groups argue that adoption of alternative fuels such as palm oil (mostly from Malayasia and Indonesia), the most consumed vegetable oil in the world, leads to deforestation and causes massive biodiversity loss. Camelina (a flowering variety) has been used for cooking, lamp oil and lubricants, and can be used in animal feed. If rape seed (canola is a variety) is diverted out of the food market into the fuel market, the additional food oils are likely to be obtained by expanding palm oil and soy production, driving deforestation (the main producers are China, India, Canada and the EU). And algal fuel, it is said, can lead to genetic contamination.
Friends of the Earth, an ecological body, has calculated that the target of the European aviation industry, to supply two million tonnes of bio-kerosene by 2020, could require approximately 3.5 million hectares (roughly the size of Belgium) of feedstock to be grown.
A policy report (this May) which included contributions by institutions such as the FAO, IMF, OECD, Unctad, World Bank and WTO had acknowledged, “Projections encompass a broad range of possible effects but all suggest that biofuel production will exert considerable upward pressure on prices in the future…as long as governments impose mandates (obligations to blend fixed proportions of biofuels with fossil fuels or binding targets for shares of biofuels in energy use), biofuel production will aggravate the price inelasticity of demand that contributes to volatility in agricultural prices.”
POLICY
Airlines are working to address the situation. KLM, in a press statement, said it was open to using different raw materials for the end product. British Airways is exploring the possibility of deriving fuel from waste and hopes to power its fleet using the fuel from 2015. Bill Gates-backed Sapphire Energy is focusing on using algae to create biofuel. Honeywell's UOP and Indian Oil Corporation, “are still looking at a number of non-food feedstocks that are plentiful in India. Algae is of interest, as is jatropha and pongamia, which are both available in India today,” according to a Honeywell spokesperson in an email response.
In a column on her website, Sunita Narain, Director-General of the centre for Science and Environment concludes “Let us be clear that biofuels cannot substitute fossil fuels. But they can make a difference if we begin to limit the consumption of the latter. If this is the case, governments should not provide subsidies to grow crops for biofuel, as is being done in the US and Europe, but spend to limit their fuel consumption by reducing the sheer numbers of vehicles on their roads. If this is done, biofuels, which are renewable and emit less greenhouse gases, will make a difference. Otherwise, we are only fooling ourselves.”
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