NASA reports that it's been testing a new aircraft biofuel.
In late March and early April 2011, a team at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in California tested renewable biofuel made from chicken and beef tallow in one of the four engines of a DC-8 airplane.
The airplane remained on the ground during the test, known as the Alternative Aviation Fuels Experiment, or AAFEX, while aeronautics researchers measured the fuel's performance in the engines and examined the engine exhaust for chemicals and contamination that could contribute to air pollution.
. . .
The team ran one engine using Hydrotreated Renewable Jet Fuel, or HRJ, and another engine using Jet Propellant 8, or JP-8, fuel, which is very similar to the industry standard Jet-A fuel used in commercial aircraft. They also ran one engine using a 50-50 blend of the two fuels.
The experiment's chief scientist, Bruce Anderson of NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia, said that in the engine that burned the biofuel, black carbon emissions were 90 percent less at idle and almost 60 percent less at takeoff thrust. Anderson added that the biofuel also produced much lower sulfate, organic aerosol, and hazardous emissions than the standard jet fuel.
There's more at the link.
Ooohhhh-kay . . . but I can see future competition between suppliers of animal-fat-based fuels for aircraft. How long, d'you think, until we see a chicken-fat fuel advertised as being better than others 'because of its secret blend of eleven herbs and spices'? I can even see some fuel suppliers using negative advertising against their competitors . . . as in, 'where's the beef?'
Peter
9 comments:
Okay, I'm just a music teacher, but the first thing I thought of was "How many chickens and/or cows would it take to supply enough fat to move one airplane across country?"
And, is the diversion of yet another food-type resource going to have yet another negative effect on food prices? Will chicken soup follow corn tortillas into the "too expensive" category?
I'd like to be open-minded here, but it doesn't look economically feasible to me.
MichigammeDave
The price of chickens is going up because the corn to feed them is being diverted into the fuel supply. Now we'll feed chickens increasingly expensive corn and divert the chickens into the fuel supply.
As a man of God, you surely have heard of the "Breatharians" who would have us believe that man can exist on air alone.
I suspect they're behind this.
I'm an engineer, and I'm with the music teacher on this one.
I guess they couldn't use pork fat cause then the Muslims wouldn't use it.
The tallow and schmalz come from slaughtered animals. This is the stuff that the packing plants have to dispose of anyway, so there is no loss of human food. Apparently there is enough material from beef, pork, chicken and turkey processing to provide a goodly amount of usable fuel, assuming the conversion process can be scaled up enough to do it economically.
The University of North Dakota has been looking at biodiesel made from soybeans as part of an aviation blend since 1999, and has also done research into a replacement for 100LL avgas.
LittleRed1
I did notice that while much mention was made of how clean the fuel was nothing was said about how much it cost to produce or - golllllllly - how much power the engine produced as compared to ordinary patroleum JP fuel.
I believe DARPA has let a contract for a portable nuclear power plant that turns sewage into JP-8. Intended to eliminate fuel convoys in Afghanistan and eliminate the by products of have a base in the middle of nowhere with no sanitary sewers to tap.
Geoff
Who likes the idea, the US military haven't used porta-nukes since the 50's.
Geoff - that's all very well, but what happens if the Taliban invent something that will cause mass constipation? There goes your energy supply!
:-)
Peter: I think the US Military already invented that. The Taliban just needs to figure out how to deploy the 4 fingers of death universally...
perlhaqr, or MRE peanut butter. That stuff could stop a transmission leak.
How long before PETA starts protesting the use of this fuel as "flying torture"?
But I can see the commercial now: "Fly the schmaltzy skies!"
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