Jumbo jets powered by chip fat and algae could be appearing on the horizon soon.

By VIVIENNE RAPER

Will your next flight be part-powered by used chip fat? The answer was 'yes' for 171 passengers flying between Amsterdam and Paris with Dutch airline KLM on June 29, 2011. They were aboard the world's first scheduled biofueled flight, which was powered by kerosene mixed with recycled cooking oil.



But behind the eye-catching headlines, debate rages about whether enough cheap fuel made from renewable organic materials could be produced to fuel future flying. And whether it's greener than fossil fuels. The aviation industry has long been regarded by environmental campaigners as one of the biggest contributors to climate change, with one study in 2009 by scientific journal, Atmospheric Environment, claiming it contributes up to 14% of anthropogenic climate warming. However, the industry has pledged to cut emissions by 50% by 2050 compared to 2005 levels.


Slashing Emissions

The hope is that biofueled flight can slash emissions. "Along with using less fuel, you can change the fuel itself and that's the biofuel journey," says Richard Wynne, Boeing's geopolitical and policy analysis director. The aviation industry claims a bio-fueled jet, or 'biojet', emits an estimated 80% less carbon dioxide than kerosene.

"We've pretty much cracked the technical issues," says Jonathon Counsell, British Airways' head of environment. But moving from one-off flights to powering global aviation is a big challenge.

Biojet is more than double the price of ordinary aviation fuel, says Finnair, which is making four flights with a biofuel blend. "It is challenging for U.S. airlines to afford such fuel cost premiums," says Jimmy Samartzis, United Airlines' managing director of global environmental sustainability. The hope is prices will fall as biofuel use expands.

Mr. Counsell and others are pushing for pro biojet policies, which they believe will also reduce prices. "We are consulting with the U.K. government to ensure there are economic incentives to produce biojet," he says. Airlines will get discounts for using biojet when they start paying for carbon emissions under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme in 2012. But producing biofuels for road and air transport poses problems. One is running out of land. "To make just 1% of the oil we use nationwide in the U.S. would require us to devote 10% of our cropland," says James Bartis, senior policy researcher at RAND.

Seed and fruit oils from jatropha, camelina and palms are among the few plant biojet sources available today, Dr. Bartis says. "The problem with using seeds is you're using a small fraction of the plant and—as a result—the yield per acre of oil is extremely low."

Palm oil is linked to rainforest destruction. If biofuel use expands "the concern is this will lead to further expansion of palm oil in Indonesia and Malaysia, and deforestation," says Kenneth Richter, a biofuels campaigner at Friends of the Earth.


Biojet Sources

The aviation industry says camelina and jatropha can be grown on marginal land to avoid competing with food production. But Dr. Bartis is skeptical about potential yields. "We found what every farmer in the world knows. You put something on marginal land, don't irrigate it and you get a marginal crop."

Biojet sources that don't use land include waste paper and wood chips. U.S. bio-energy firm Solena Group and BA are building a $350 million (€240 million) plant in London, to convert agricultural, domestic and industrial waste into 16 million gallons (60 million liters) of fuel a year. The plant should be complete before 2015

But waste like cardboard and cooking fat has limited availability. Approximately 400 million gallons of waste cooking oils are collected annually from U.S. restaurants. But U.S. airlines require 17.5 billion gallons of fuel a year. "When folks ask whether Boeing is interested in camelina, jatropha or cellulosic material (like wood chips) as the great potential feedstock for aviation. The answer is yes, all of those," says Mr. Wynne.

Biojet's holy grail is milking oil from algae. "Algae is the feedstock many people think has the potential to supply the industry's volumetric needs," says Mr. Wynne. Biologist Craig Venter has teamed up with ExxonMobil on a $600 million project to genetically engineer biofuel-producing super-algae.

A 2009 scientific study included estimates that ocean-living algae could generate up to 200 times more oil per acre than seeds. But generating biojet from algae is hard. Biofuel producer Neste Oil launched two algae research projects this summer and says producing commercial quantities is five to 10 years away.

How much biojet can limit climate change is also unclear. A study by German Aerospace Center scientists published in March found aircraft condensation trails could cause more short-term climate warming than all the carbon dioxide emitted by aircraft during the history of flight.

Professor Manfred Aigner says the scientific debate over contrails is "quite open at the moment". But he expects the biojet blend he is helping test for Lufthansa during the next six months will produce fewer condensation trails than kerosene.

Do airlines have options beyond biofuels? Boeing's website mentions its solar-powered SolarEagle and hydrogen-powered Phantom Eye planes. But Mr. Wynne explains they're research projects. "For the foreseeable future as an industry we're going to be burning high-energy liquid hydrocarbon fuels," he says. How many years is the "foreseeable future"? "Hopefully less than 1000," he says, laughing.

Green deal must not be dominated by big energy companies

Labour's vision is a scheme where small businesses, co-operatives, charities and social enterprises are able to compete alongside large companies

Luciana Berger
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 14 September 2011 12.59 BST

On Wednesday afternoon the energy bill has its report stage and third reading in the House of Commons.


The bill's main aim is to establish a pay-as-you-save energy efficiency scheme called the "green deal", where homeowners can make their homes more energy efficient with loans whose repayments are offset by bill savings.





The green deal could offer some protection against the recent 20% gas and electricity prices by five of the six major energy companies.




Ministers are very quick to talk up its potential. Chris Huhne has called it "the most ambitious energy-saving plan ever put forward". In its current form, it lacks a clearly laid out strategy showing how much the green deal will reduce the UK's carbon emissions by and what progress is being made towards this.


That's why Labour has tabled the warm homes amendments, which link the green deal to the UK's carbon budgets and our legal target to eliminate fuel poverty by 2016. And we've put forward proposals for local carbon plans, to encourage local authorities and local businesses to be at the heart of reducing carbon emissions.

If these changes aren't adopted today, it looks like the marketplace will be dominated by the big energy companies. Labour's vision for the green deal is one where small businesses, co-operatives, charities and social enterprises are able to compete alongside large companies that want to take part in the scheme.


We tabled proposals to reduce administration fees and a guarantee of fair access to the green deal for smaller providers. The government voted against them. By rejecting this approach, ministers are in danger of leaving Britain's 2m small businesses with empty order books, as the big players squeeze them out of the market place.




Another part of the problem is that at present many consumers don't know about the scheme. At the beginning of August a survey by YouGov found that 54% of respondents were unable to identify that the green deal is designed to fund energy efficiency improvements. Fourteen per cent thought it was aimed at protecting national forests and outdoor spaces, while 9% believed it was for increasing the number of hybrid cars on UK roads.


There is much scepticism amongst those consumers who are aware of the programme. The main challenge is the loans are subject to interest charges.


A report by environmental think tank E3G says that relying on commercial loans could mean interest rates are as high as 8%. Polling conducted by the Great British Refurb Campaign worryingly found that only 7% of homeowners would be interested in taking up the green deal if the interest rate was 6% or above.


The government has not yet demonstrated that it has found a way to solve this problem and lower the interest rate. David Cameron's own senior energy adviser, Ben Moxham, has described the proposals as "unconvincing". It's incredible that something as fundamental as this has not been resolved at such a late stage.


If done properly, the green deal could mean lower fuel bills, reduced carbon emissions and more jobs. To make this happen, the government needs to set a clear level of ambition for the scheme, pass local carbon plans to help small businesses and make the scheme attractive to consumers.



• Luciana Berger MP is the shadow minister for climate change