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ENERGY: Biofuels, a very costly way to fly
        (AlbertaIndex, May 19, Monday) --- This comment was first published in www.RenewablesReport.Blogspot.com.
        Something happened to all of us the last few decades. We all have been adopting the American way of life, including the Chinese, Indians, Russians and the Arabs of the oil-rich parts of the Middle East. Whether people care to admit it or not, including those who wear their anti-American feelings on their sleeves, the US has helped define the goals and set the standards by which we measure the progress and quality of our lives.
        Like it or not, the GDP has become the leading benchmark of our living standards, and the measure of our success and failure as a people. The GDP is not just a number: it implies other yardsticks that show if our lives are making the type of progress that we’ve been sold on and now come to expect.

Cars, shopping malls, condominiums, imported food, high-tech medical care, lots of consumer electronic toys, cell phones, air conditioning, and air travel to distant, exotic locations are some of the essential components of modern living. In other words, we’re all seeking a lifestyle, the American lifestyle.

This lifestyle is built on the basis of cheap energy: oil, coal, gas and whatever energy sources that enable us to convert it into affordable goods and services. For much of the last century, cheap energy has enabled many of us to steadily grow our GDPs.

As oil gradually becomes more expensive, it is threatening our ability to grow that GDP. Our lifestyles are starting to look unsustainable from this year as oil surged past US$100 a barrel for the first time.

Cheap flights suddenly don’t look so viable now. Increasingly, we have to contemplate a return to the past when air travel was the preserve of the rich and powerful.

There will be no future for the budget and mass air industry. Airline and airport stocks will be prime targets for short selling. In a few years from now, when we look back at the rapid growth of mass air travel and budget tourism, it would become clear that it was all built on a transitory period of low fuel prices.

As oil heads towards $130 a barrel on the way to $200 as warned by some experts, there will be one last desperate attempt by those in the industry to preserve the illusion that air travel for everyone is still possible.

Attempts are underway now to develop biofuels for use in commercial aircraft. British entrepreneur Richard Branson, and US-based Continental Airlines, Boeing and GE Aviation are among those hoping to develop aviation fuels based on agricultural produce.

Sir Richard hopes to use biofuels to power his Virgin Atlantic fleet of 747s and Airbuses.

Last week, Honeywell announced its subsidiaries, UOP LLC and Honeywell Aerospace, are partnering with Airbus, JetBlue Airways and International Aero Engines to study the use of biofuels in commercial aircraft.

The company said the effort will focus on developing and testing renewable energy technology to convert biofeedstocks to commercial aviation fuels, with specific focus on “second-generation” feedstocks such as algae which do not compete with food or water resources.

“Biofuels hold tremendous potential to meet growing fuel demand while reducing lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions,” said Jennifer Holmgren, director of UOP’s Renewable Energy and Chemicals business. “This partnership brings together a range of aviation and process technology expertise to study and verify the best path toward sustainable use of biofuels in aviation.”

UOP, a leading developer of refining technology, said it has already developed process technology to convert natural oils and greases to military jet fuel as part of a project funded by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

The process technology produces “green” jet fuel that is a drop-in replacement for traditional kerosene-based jet fuel and meets all the critical performance specifications for flight. This technology will also be viable for use in the production of jet fuel for commercial jets. UOP is developing a range of biofuels technologies in addition to jet fuel and has already commercialised EcofiningTM process technology to produce green diesel from biofeedstocks.

Despite the good intention of these companies to develop biofuels from non-food crops, their efforts will not come cheap, and will still have an impact on the food business and food costs. They will still need land, fertiliser, water and the scarce skills of scientists, biologists and technicians to produce biofuels for aviation use.

This new generation of biofuels will cost a fortune to develop and mass produce, if it gets to that stage, effectively killing off hopes for continued cheap air travel.

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