Colleagues and Friends of the Earth:
As many of you know, I have with a team of colleagues, with energy and enthusiasm, and with mostly West Virginia Angel investors, established a new manufacturing Company here in West Virginia. We are cautiously optimistic that we will, upon completion of our development work, and implementation of a full manufacturing plant, begin to offer to equip the airlines of the world with a system that will reduce the carbon footprint of every plane that deploys our system...and save them operating expense while doing so. The scientific talents of the Touchstone Research Laboratories in Wheeling have been our partners in this leading edge work.
As our market is the airlines of the world, in particular the cargo planes, we track the business trends and progress through appropriate trade publications, in this case Air Cargo World. www.aircargoworld@ubmaviation.com
In the most recent 12/3/2010 on line issue, is an exciting development is reported that in which any and all who are concerned about Global Warming should see encouragement, progress and hope.
And it is ironic, that Nazi Germany, the country that out of desperation in isolation of WW II, gave us that environmentally horrific process known as "Fischer Trope" process for converting Coals to Liquid*. The Germans of today have now shown us a sustainable and renewable approach to a jet fuel...using vegetable oil! And while other airlines have experimented with bio-fuel mixes, Lufthansa seems to be the first airline to put the fuel into daily flights.
*(Today, the largest plant on the planet using the Fischer Trope process is in Segundo South Africa. The Minister for the Environment for the Government of South Africa stated a few months ago that that plant is the largest single source of greenhouse gasses on the planet! Downstream life threatening carcinogenic and cardiac health conditions are among the worst on the planet! And our West Virginia politicians want to use an "improved" version of this process???)
Here's the article...I thought your readership and members might enjoy reading it...and know that there are some entrepreneurs and industries that are earnestly and profitably, trying to use renewable energy sources to slow, stop and reverse global warming while too many others are wasting time, energy and our money trying to preserve the Neanderthal sources of energy that are causing global warming.
Of course, in fact, they are driven by established EU requirements to reduce their carbon footprint with specific time frame and levels, so in spite of our Congressional foot-dragging, and irresponsible attacks on the EPA, Europe is ahead of us in mandating a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
Enjoy in good health and happy holidays
Allan
Hamburg linked with vegetable oil
01/12/2010 4:43 pm
Lufthansa will operate daily A321 flights next year between Hamburg and Frankfurt using a biofuel blend made from 50 percent hydro-treated vegetable oil.
The flights will begin in April 2011 for six months as part of the "Burn Fair" project to study the long term impact of sustainable bio-fuels on aircraft performance. When burned, the fuel made from the biomass material emits the CO2 it naturally absorbs when it grows, thereby helping neutralize overall CO2 emissions.
The biofuel is being provided by Finland-based Neste Oil and comes from sustainable sources to ensure the bio-feedstock does not compete for food, water nor land. Neste Oil is a member of RSB (Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels) and RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil).
"We see great opportunities in the use of bio-synthetic kerosene. But we are first gathering experience with it in daily practice. Indeed, Lufthansa is the world's first airline to utilize biofuel in flight operations. This is a further consistent step in the sustainability strategy, which Lufthansa has for years been successfully pursuing," said Wolfgang Mayrhuber, Lufthansa CEO.
"Daily biofuel flights are a significant step forward in our pursuit of a sustainable future for aviation. Airbus is bringing together feedstock producers, fuel refiners and airlines, and with today's announcement, we have taken yet another step towards making this real," added Tom Enders, Airbus president and CEO.
Last October, an Airbus aircraft operated the first commercial flight of 50 percent blended Gas-to-Liquid (GTL), and in February 2008, an A380 aircraft successfully completed the world's first ever flight by a commercial aircraft using GTL.
Now the manufacturer is launching engine options for a new version of the A320 - the A320neo - with either a LEAP-X engine by CFM International or a PurePower PW1100G engine by Pratt & Whitney. According to Airbus, the new engines are quieter, boast lower operating costs and will reduce fuel consumption by 15 percent.
"Finding the necessary resources for the A320neo wasn't exactly a walk in the park," explained Enders. "The enabler was to devise a stringent phasing of critical engineering assets throughout our various development programs and to optimize the management and organization of all our programs and R&T projects. Our international engineering centers, suppliers and partners play a big role in this."
Airbus officials forecast the market for A320neo-equipped aircraft expanding to 4,000 during the next 15 years.