wild green yonder beckons all in aviation, The

Tooling & Production, Sep 2008 by Alpern, Peter B

When the most intriguing attraction at the Farnborough International Airshow neither hurtles into the sky nor reaches supersonic speeds, something's terribly amiss.

But perhaps that's just a sign of the times. Farnborough has traditionally been aviation's form of the World's Cup: a race to show off newest, biggest, strongest, and fastest jet fighters, commercial aircraft, helicopters and private planes.

In a stark contrast, however, the recent airshow was dominated by concern over the high price of oil, which has led the industry to shift its priorities. The attention of the aviation's elite was instead trained on a vat of deep green liquid.

Boeing hosted an environmental exhibition featuring a 75-gallon tank of bright green algae, which the company calls the potential feeding ground for a jet-fuel substitute.

Darrin Morgan, business analyst for environmental strategy director at Boeing, indicated that the plant material makes "extremely good jet fuel."

"It grows naturally in an aquatic environment; it doubles in mass every day; it's very plant-oil dense," he says.

The use of algae plant oil for fuel is in the early stages of development. But already, Boeing has joined Chevron Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell in investing both time and resources into the endeavor.

Researchers have already managed to extract vegetable oil from algae harvested on ponds. Scientists believe algae could potentially produce much higher yields than other biofuels, with the added advantage that it would not take up valuable farmland.

Other biofuels are at much more advanced stages and bear watching.

Air New Zealand, for instance, has begun testing Jatropha, a bush native to Central America that can grow in arid environments, requires little water and has a much higher oil yield than crops such as corn.

Both Boeing and Airbus tested hydrogen-based fuel technology this year, with an eye toward use in the auxiliary power units that supply backup power, electricity and compressed air.

Airbus flew an A380, the world's largest passenger aircraft, on a gas-to-liquid fuel derived from converting natural gas to liquid kerosene, a conversion process similar to the one that extracts liquid fuel from plant biomass.

Boeing hopes to develop a fuel that does not threaten the world's food supply, taint water, or require land be cultivated. Scott Carson, the chief executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, likens the industry's quest for biofuels to efforts to send a man to the moon.

While reducing emissions is a factor, the sheer force of the rising price of oil is the single strongest motivator.

"Every dollar increase in the price of crude oil leads to $1.6 billion additional costs to the industry worldwide," says Steve Lott, spokesman for the International Air Transport Association.

And if ever an industry needed a real incentive, oil doubling in price in 12 months is it.

"It's a matter of survival," says Giovanni Bisignani, director general of the International Air Transport Association. Boeing, www.rsleads.com/809tp-152

By Peter B. Alpern, Associate Editor