Canada and the US compete to develop aviation biofuels

Erase the air "carbon footprint"

Greenhouse gases produced by aviation flights around the world account for 3% of human greenhouse gas emissions. The aviation industry is under the dual pressure of rising oil prices and reducing carbon emissions. Therefore, many experts believe that the development of biofuels to replace aviation fuel currently used is a big way for aviation industry to reduce emissions and reduce fuel costs.

The aviation industry is a large energy consumer

In North America, nearly half of the fuel is used in the transportation industry including aviation. In Canada, 43% of fuel is used in the transportation industry, compared with 46% in the United States. Among them, road vehicles, including cars, trucks, passenger cars, etc., are all “new forces” that consume fuel. At present, experts generally believe that alternatives to automotive fuel should be electric drives rather than biofuels.

But for the aircraft, at least for now, electric drive is not a good choice. If it is intended to reduce the "carbon footprint" of the world's aviation fleet, the use of more "clean" and renewable biofuels for aero engines seems to be the only option at present. In the developed countries, the use of aviation fuel accounts for 8% of the total output of petroleum products. Therefore, the more realistic consideration is to gradually increase the proportion of biofuels in total aviation fuel use.

"Super seaweed" has a higher oil yield

At present, the United States and Canada are making serious and solid efforts in this regard. Under the support of Canada’s government “Sustainable Technology”, Canada’s “Ocean Nutrition” company is developing a technology demonstration project that uses a unique seaweed as raw material to process and produce fuels suitable for aviation use.

"Ocean Nutrition" is the world's largest producer of "Omega 3" fatty acid additives. The company's scientists have screened hundreds of species of marine microorganisms and found "super seaweed" with particularly high oil yield. According to experts, this seaweed has a higher oil yield than other seaweed raw materials currently used for biofuel production. According to experts from Canada's "Sustainable Technology", the "super seaweed" single cell oil yield is 60 times that of other seaweed single cells. At present, "Ocean Nutrition" has mastered this technique of artificial cultivation of algae and cryogenic storage methods.

The company's partners include the National Research Council of Canada, Lockheed Martin of the United States, and UOPLLC.UOPLLC, a subsidiary of Honeywell of the United States, whose mission is to convert marine algae oil produced by Ocean Nutrition into Aviation fuel used by aero engines.

Indigo does not compete with food for "sites"

In addition to supporting the “Sea Nutrition” super seaweed project, the Canadian “Sustainable Technology Conference” also provided financial support for the “Canada Growth Goals” of biotechnology companies in Saskatchewan.

The “Growth Goal” company and its partners Bombardier Aircraft, Pratt Whitney, Canada, and UOPLLC are working together to develop technologies that convert Indigo oil into aviation fuel. Compared to common aviation fuel, aviation fuel processed using Indigo oil can reduce carbon emissions by 80%. Moreover, Indigo is a kind of oilseed plant that is suitable for growing on arid lands. Therefore, it does not compete with food for “sites”.

According to plan, aviation fuel using Indigo as a raw material will be used for its first time on the Bombardier Q400 turboprop aircraft by one of its partner partners, the Porter Regional Airlines in Toronto, in 2012.

According to another report, the US Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is in charge of inventing the Internet and global navigation, is building a large-scale algae oil processing plant, which is expected to be completed in 2013. The U.S. Air Force and the Navy are also piloting the use of biofuels as aviation fuel on various types of aircraft. The US Navy plans to use more than half of the aircraft's biofuels by 2020.

The Boeing Company recently stated that by 2015, 1% of the aviation fuel produced by commercial airliners will come from biofuels. The head of environmental strategy at Boeing Business Machines told Bloomberg in July that 1% appears to be a small number, but if it does, it will prove the feasibility of using biofuels on a larger scale.