Fastest Bentley ever to run on ethanol
Jan 31, 2009 Auto Tech, Green Technologies
Bentley has released a teaser video for its upcoming “Extreme Bentley” flexfuel car. Touted as the fastest Bentley ever, the car can run on ethanol and petrol or blends of these and is scheduled for release in March 2009 during the Geneva Motorshow.
Watch the video below. Image after the jump.
Tags: Bentley, biofuel, ethanol, Extreme Bentley
Japan Airlines undertakes biofuel powered test flight
Jan 31, 2009 Green Technologies, Information of the Day
Japan Airlines
Japan Airlines (JAL) became the latest airline to conduct a demonstration flight using a biofuel blend. An approximately one and half-hour demo flight using a JAL-owned Boeing 747-300 aircraft, had a blend of 50% biofuel and 50% traditional Jet-A jet fuel powering one of the 4 engines.
The biofuel component tested was a mixture of three second-generation biofuel feedstocks: camelina (84%), jatropha (under 16%), and algae (under 1%). While biofuels derived from corn have been blamed for food crisis by competing with food crops , there are skeptics for even the second generation of biofuel which may not be as carbon neutral as they appear at first glance.
Virgin Atlantic had tested biofuels in jet engines in February 2008 while Continental Airlines and Air New Zealand had done their own tests recently. Even in today’s era of low oil prices, it is heartening to see the efforts of these airlines to test alternative fuel sources. Air travel contributes about 2% to overall emission ofgreenhouse gases. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: biofuel, Camelina, Jaan Airlines, Jatropha, Jet fuel
Waste not your rubbish!
Jan 20, 2009 Green Technologies, Information of the Day, Startups
Enerkem
While one hears a lot about wind and solar power companies, perhaps companies that produce electricity from waste are less celebrated. So we decided that we will profile a few companies that will help turn part of your household and office waste into energy.
The one to pique the most curiosity must be Enerkem,which plans to make cellulosic ethanol using wood from used electricity poles. It is close to starting a 1.3 million-gallon facility near Montreal that is designed to use a thermo-chemical process to turn the waste wood into ethanol. Interestingly, the company claims that it is paid to take away those wooden poles, so it must be a fabulous deal for the company. Enerkem will be getting its hands dirty with municipal solid waste as part of its work on waste-to-ethanol facilities with Toronto’s GreenField Ethanol.
But what if you want to generate electricity from waste generated at your office? Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: biofuel, Enerken, IST, renewable energy, trash, Verenium, Ze-Gen
Air New Zealand tests jatropha as fuel
Dec 31, 2008 Green Technologies, Information of the Day
Air New Zealand
Air New Zealand successfully undertook its first biofuel powered flight yesterday, joining Virgin Airlines in exploring newer alternatives for Aviation Turbine Fuel.
During a two-hour flight to and from Auckland International Airport, the Air New Zealand crew sought to test how the fuel, made from jatropha plants and blended 50:50 with Jet A1 fuel in the tank of one of four Rolls-Royce engines on a 747-400, stood up to use at high altitudes and in other demanding conditions.
Air New Zealand had Boeing and a subsidiary of Honewell as partners in the test flight. While there has been a lot of debate on whether biofuel really cut down emissions or whether they cause food crisis, jatropha is seen as promising because it can grow under hostile climate and lands unsuitable for foodcrop production.
Watch a video of the people behind this attempt after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Air New Zealand, biofuel, Boeing, Jatropha
Continental Airlines plans to test biofuels for flight
Dec 11, 2008 Green Technologies
Continental Airlines, in partnership with Boeing, is planning a test flight of a 737-800 aircraft partially fueled by biofuels. The test is scheduled for Jan. 7 in Houston. The plane, which will not carry passengers, will be outfitted with a right engine running on a 50-50 blend of traditional jet fuel and a mixture of biofuels including algae and jatropha plants. This will be the first such test by an American carrier.
Air New Zealand was planning to test a similar biofuel powered flight last week, but postponed the flight while it deals with the crash of one of its aircraft off the coast of France. Virgin Atlantic already ran a test from London to Amsterdam with fuel mixed with coconut oil and babassu oil earlier this year. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: biofuel, Continental Airlines, Jatropha, US
Paper-mill to biofuel tech. company Chemrec raises $20 million
Dec 3, 2008 Green Technologies
Chemrec
Chemrec, working on technology to turn the byproduct from paper and pulp mills into biofuels and biochemicals, announced that it has raised $20 million to bring its technology to commercialization. Chemrec is headquartered in Stockholm.
Pulp and paper mills produce a dark, inky byproduct known in the industry as “black liquor,” which is often burned in standard boilers to produce modest amounts of electricity and plant stream. Chemrec says its technology can turn the black liquor into a biofuel or biochemical, and claims its process is more efficient than producing electricity via the traditional boiler system.
Chemrec is testing its technology at two paper mills — Weyerhaeuser’s New Bern mill in North Carolina and Chemrec’s own development plant in Pitea, Sweden. Next step is trying to bring it out in a cmmercial and bigger scale.
The Series C round saw participation from Environmental Technologies Fund , VantagePoint Venture Partners and Volvo Technology Transfer, the investment arm of the Swedish automaker. Volvo is interested in how black liquor can be made into bio dimethyl ether, DME. Volvo is also working on developing 14 prototype trucks to run on DME. The Swedish Bioenergy Association has calculated that if there was a DME plant at every paper mill in Sweden, enough biofuel could be made to replace a third of the country’s diesel fuel. Chemreq says DME from black liquor has one of the highest land use efficiencies of second-generation biofuels.
Tags: biofuel, Chemrec, Paper-mill, Sweeden, Volvo
Air Newzealand to try biofuel in its 747
Nov 12, 2008 Information of the Day
Boeing 747
Air New Zealand and Boeing set 3 December as the date for the airline’s sustainable biofuels flight from Auckland using a 747-400 jetliner. Conducted in partnership with Rolls-Royce and UOP, one of the airplane’s four Rolls-Royce RB211 engines will run a 50/50 blend of Jet A-1 and UOP’s “green jet” fuel—a synthetic paraffinic kerosene (SPK) derived from jatropha.
This comes after a Virgin Atlantic jumbo jet flew between London’s Heathrow and Amsterdam using fuel derived from a mixture of Brazilian babassu nuts and coconuts in February 2008. Earlier that month, Airbus had tested another alternative fuel - a synthetic mix of gas-to-liquid. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Air New Zealand, biodiesel, biofuel, Boeing
Diesel producing microbe discovered
Nov 4, 2008 Green Technologies
Secrets from the wild
A team led by Gary Strobel of Montana State University has found a fungus that produces a new type of diesel fuel, which they say holds great promise. Calling the fungus’ output “myco-diesel,” the team describe their initial observations in the November issue of Microbiology.
The road to commercialization and scaling up of production yet needs to be explored. Myco-diesel could be an option for those who want alternatives even to ethanol. And they won’t compete with food crops like others that do, like sugarcane or corn.
Even before we try genetic engineering to engineer new and useful microbes, who knows what other useful secrets the wilds hide from us round the world?
Tags: biofuel, fungus, Green diesel, new fuels, TIME magazine
1000 hectare algae farm to be online in 2011
Oct 23, 2008 Green Technologies, Startups
Alage in tube
GreenFuel, a company founded by MIT graduates, announced a deal for the construction of a commercial scale 100 hectare algae farm to be fully operational in 2011. Spain’s Aurantia, a leading alternative energy investment firm, has agreed to pay GreenFuels $92M to build the farm that will produce 25,000 tons of biomass yearly.
GreenFuel, which recently celebrated its 7th anniversary and had tested with growing algae in tubes few years back, already has a 100 square-meter prototype greenhouse operating at the site in Spain. GreenFuel ditched the growing tubes, opting for a top-secret tubeless proprietary growing process, one which includes automated harvesting. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Algae, biofuel, Green Technology, GreenFuel