Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck
Switching to fuel created using sugarcane biomass could drastically reduce the carbon emissions produced by jet aircraft, researchers from the University of California-Berkeley report in a study published recently in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
According to Discovery News, nearly two percent of human-generated carbon emissions come from aircraft, but the authors of the new study claim that sugarcane-based biofuel could reduce those emissions by as much as 80 percent. This feat would be accomplished using a new method featuring a complex series of chemical reactions involving sugar and cane waste products.
Unlike other sources of biofuel, sugarcane can be grown on land that is unsuitable for other crops and would not require the use of land that could be used to grow edible crops and thus potentially threatening global food security. The researchers also told BBC News that it was vital to develop new types of renewable liquid fuels to reduce the planet’s reliance on petroleum.
New substance meets strict standards for aviation fuel
“We’ve identified a new route of chemistry with its source from sugars in sugarcane plus some of the so-called waste material called bagasse,” study co-author Alexis Bell of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the Energy Biosciences Institute, told BBC News. “We show… how we can put these components together to make jet diesel and lubricants.”
Aviation fuel must meet a series of strict requirements, Bell said. It cannot have any oxygen content, it must have the right boiling point distribution, it must not cause excessive wear to the turbine components and it must have a low pour point, meaning that it cannot become gelatinous in colder temperatures. His team’s new fuel “meets all of those criteria,” he claimed.
The research, which was funded by petroleum company BP, could also be used to develop new, cleaner lubricants for use in automobiles, as well as a cleaner diesel fuel, Discovery News said. At the company’s urging, Bell said that his team filed for a patent for the new technology.
“Where they see the likely commercial interest for themselves and others is that the lubricants would be first as the profit margins are largest,” Bell, who is the Dow Professor of Sustainable Chemistry at the university, explained to BBC News. “Next would be aviation fuel because of the growing US and European regulations requiring a ‘green’ component of aviation fuel.”
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