Boeing Helping to Develop Algae-Powered Jet

jon_cooper writes "Air New Zealand, Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation and Boeing are working together to develop and test a bio-fuel derived from algae. Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation began operating in May last year after it met a request from the local council to deal with excess algae on sewage ponds. Boeing's Dave Daggett was reported this year as saying algae ponds totaling 34,000 square kilometers could produce enough fuel to reduce the net CO2 footprint for all of aviation to zero."

The perfect fuel

[Anonymous Coward]

Smoke weed and fly!

And in response...

[Kohath]

And in response, General Dynamics developed a cloud-powered submarine.

The irony wars have just been joined!

Re:Only

[solevita]

Coincidently, the Netherlands has an area of 34,000 kilometres squared... Now I'm not suggesting we turn one of the most densely populated places in the world into a big pond, but think of the airline potentials! Of course we'd lose all that great stuff that the Netherlands provides, like...

Well, someone must be able to think of something.

Re:Only

[Da Fokka]

As you apparently are unaware, algae live in the sea. So 34000km2 of land mass is of little help when it comes to growing algae. On the other hand, more than half of the Netherlands are below sea level, so in a couple of years the Netherlands could take care of about half of all aviation CO2 emissions.

Re:And in response...

[Red Flayer]

Bah, we all knew that the airlines were scum anyway.

What I really want to see is a mushroom-powered Air Force. If you thought those Hellfire missile explosions were pretty before...

Opening Line

[phantomfive]

I love the opening line of the article

Air New Zealand and airliner manufacturer Boeing are secretly working with Blenheim-based biofuel developer Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation to create the world's first environmentally friendly aviation fuel, made of wild algae.

Not so secret anymore.
--
Looking for a C/C++ job in Silicon Valley? [slashdot.org]

Re:Save the Fish

[zippthorne]

Killing birds with rocks doesn't sound very environmentally friendly to me...

Re:Save the Fish

[Belacgod]

Hey, I like fish, I hate birds. Whaddaya want, ideological consistency?

Re:Only

[utopianfiat]

Tulips, Cannabis, Absinthe, Prostitutes,
(on a more serious note): Oil [shell.com], M. C. Escher [wikipedia.org], Vincent Van Gogh [vangoghmuseum.nl], Peace Treaties (a plurality, even) [wikipedia.org], and Really Nice Airlines [klm.com] that could benefit from this technology.

Half of West Virginia

[Dunx]

Area required to fuel worldwide air fleet? 34,000 km^2

Area of West Virginia? 62,361 km^2

Half of West Virginia covered in algae? Priceless!

So... they run on pond scum?

[markbt73]

Can't the planes just burn politicians? Same thing, and FAR more of a problem...

Re:Only

[MaceyHW]

Hey, the Netherlands is already doing more than its share of growing the green stuff that powers human trips into the heavens!

Plus, according to Wikipedia, Guinea-Bissau [wikipedia.org] is the smallest, sufficiently-sized country.

Re:Not actually Algae powered

[Yetihehe]

I wonder if it would be easier to make fuel out of the poop. How much processing does the algae save?

They save a shitload of processing.

Re:Only

[xENoLocO]

You know... the netherlands kinda resemble a pyramid...

Sure, but consider this...

[spun]

If a sea bass eats the planet, we can rape Al Gore!

Wait, what were we talking about?

Typical human arrogance

[Anonymous Coward]

Has anybody even bothered to ask the algae how they feel about being herded into crowded pools--some smaller than the state of Maryland--and force-fed CO2 so we can use their fat to fuel our planes?

If we're going to subjugate a species for our conveniences, we should choose a less sentient form of life with easily harvested fat. I suggest we start with NASCAR fans.

Re:Only

[Torontoman]

"The nation of Afghanistan is 652,090 square km. Whatever happened to that Lake Afghanistan idea that the air force was working on right after 9/11? Covering a lake that size with algae would provide a whole lotta jet fuel, not to mention getting rid of a whole lotta Islamic fundamentalists,... ;-)"

Lets weigh this idea for a bit...

Pro: Would probably unite Afghanistan under on gov't
Con: That gov't (surely to me 'western-esque'!!) would have the worlds' largest supply of jet fuel-- which can, if burned inside buildings, cause office towers to collapse.

Pro: No more Poppy farming.
Con: Newly-minted Jet fuel farmers would produce the worlds' largest supply of jet fuel -- which can, if burned inside buildings, cause office towers to collapse.

Pro: Air Afghanistan would have the least expensive fuel costs of any airline.
Con: They could actually fly into places loaded with jet fuel -- which can, if burned inside buildings, cause office towers to collapse.

Torontoman.

Re:Only

[drix]

I would gladly turn half of Florida into a swamp for a good cause.

I think you forgot the words, "the other."

Re:Where to put it?

[SockPuppet_9_5]

With all that algae blooming off the Mississippi Delta, pulling CO2 out of the air and then dying, sinking to the bottom...

Who gets the carbon credits for this? It better not be Al Gore!