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posted by martyb on Wednesday November 22 2017, @10:15AM   Printer-friendly
from the sugar-promotes-heart-disease dept.

Is sugar the new oil?

Airlines are under pressure to reduce their carbon emissions, and are highly vulnerable to global oil price fluctuations. These challenges have spurred strong interest in biomass-derived jet fuels. Bio-jet fuel can be produced from various plant materials, including oil crops, sugar crops, starchy plants and lignocellulosic biomass, through various chemical and biological routes. However, the technologies to convert oil to jet fuel are at a more advanced stage of development and yield higher energy efficiency than other sources.

We are engineering sugarcane, the most productive plant in the world, to produce oil that can be turned into bio-jet fuel. In a recent study, we found that use of this engineered sugarcane could yield more than 2,500 liters of bio-jet fuel per acre of land. In simple terms, this means that a Boeing 747 could fly for 10 hours on bio-jet fuel produced on just 54 acres of land. Compared to two competing plant sources, soybeans and jatropha, lipidcane would produce about 15 and 13 times as much jet fuel per unit of land, respectively.

Maybe jet fuel is a better use of the world's sugar supply than eating it is...


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 22 2017, @10:24AM (11 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 22 2017, @10:24AM (#600127)

    In simple terms, this means that a Boeing 747 could fly for 10 hours on bio-jet fuel produced on just 54 acres of land.

    This is a meaningless figure. Produced on 54 acres in what time? 10 hours? A year? A decade? A century?

    Also, how many hours does a typical Boeing 747 fly per year? And what does that mean for the area of land needed to support one Boeing 747?

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by WizardFusion on Wednesday November 22 2017, @10:47AM

      by WizardFusion (498) on Wednesday November 22 2017, @10:47AM (#600131) Journal

      Also, how does this compare to the current conversion rate of oil.

    • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 22 2017, @10:54AM (6 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 22 2017, @10:54AM (#600132)

      Sugar cane takes 12-16months before it is ready to be harvested.
      so 16months of organic growth for 10hours of airtime

      in 2015 there was 142,000 general flight hours. So that is 14,200 sugarcane plots needed -> 766800 acres dedicated to growing sugar cane for 16months for ONE year of general flight.

      There is then the harvest time and fuel, processing time and fuel.

      • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 22 2017, @01:35PM (4 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 22 2017, @01:35PM (#600162)

        In the United States, 900,000 acres [statista.com] of land is planted with sugar cane.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 22 2017, @02:35PM (3 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 22 2017, @02:35PM (#600181)

          And honestly, using all that sugar for jet fuel instead of putting in into foods is probably the smarter play.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 22 2017, @02:46PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 22 2017, @02:46PM (#600183)

            The submitter said the same thing. Besides turning sugar into fuel, the story is about a genetically engineered sugar cane that contains much more lipids (oils) than regular sugar cane.

          • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 22 2017, @03:36PM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 22 2017, @03:36PM (#600192)

            Do we really need more wide-bodied jets?

            • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday November 22 2017, @08:05PM

              by maxwell demon (1608) on Wednesday November 22 2017, @08:05PM (#600314) Journal

              Have you ever been in a plane? A bit more space is certainly welcome there.

              What are you saying, they will cram more seats in? Damn.

              --
              The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
      • (Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Thursday November 23 2017, @04:32AM

        by frojack (1554) on Thursday November 23 2017, @04:32AM (#600518) Journal

        Throw in depletion of the land, and you have an environmental disaster in slow motion, just to fly rich bastards around.

        --
        No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    • (Score: 2) by lx on Wednesday November 22 2017, @10:55AM (1 child)

      by lx (1915) on Wednesday November 22 2017, @10:55AM (#600133)

      "Sugarcane is harvested once per year. The plants are maintained for three years and will achieve three harvests before the field is replanted. "

      54 acres for 10 hours of flight per year. Sounds horribly inefficient to me.

      source [gardenguides.com]

      • (Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Wednesday November 22 2017, @02:29PM

        by Nerdfest (80) on Wednesday November 22 2017, @02:29PM (#600178)

        The bonus is that these plants suck up CO2, then release it when it's burned. Oil just releases it.

    • (Score: 2) by krishnoid on Wednesday November 22 2017, @09:04PM

      by krishnoid (1156) on Wednesday November 22 2017, @09:04PM (#600347)

      My immediate guess was one harvest, but IANASCF.

  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 22 2017, @11:09AM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 22 2017, @11:09AM (#600136)

    According to this page, [farmlandlp.com] one acre feeds a person for one year. And note that this is assuming an American diet.

    So what do you think makes better use of the land, feeding 54 people for a year, or flying a Boeing 747 for 10 hours?

    • (Score: 2) by ledow on Wednesday November 22 2017, @11:11AM (2 children)

      by ledow (5567) on Wednesday November 22 2017, @11:11AM (#600137) Homepage

      Depends if those 747s (or equivalent) are loaded with food imports really, doesn't it?

      • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday November 22 2017, @11:40PM (1 child)

        by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday November 22 2017, @11:40PM (#600426)

        The math works if it's loaded with 416 people who will have to eat whatever grows in a country 4 hours away.

        Some journalist does need to remember that 747s are fuel hogs and being replaced by much more efficient planes.

        • (Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Thursday November 23 2017, @05:31PM

          by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Thursday November 23 2017, @05:31PM (#600724) Homepage Journal

          I'm getting two new 747-8s to replace the old 747-200s I'm using for Air Force One. I got a great deal on them because Aeroflot didn't take them. Obama ordered two very expensive 747-8s, I canceled that and got these instead. Dennis from Boeing found them, already built and sitting in the desert. Just sitting out there waiting!

    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 22 2017, @07:48PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 22 2017, @07:48PM (#600301)

      The ladder. Are you moral-fagging here because some dimwits in Africa have 12 kids they can't feed?

      Maybe your starving Africans should kill more White people and take their farms... Oh what's that? The Evil White man took the Farm's Magic when he was killed? What an asshole. (Yes they actually fucking believe this).

      • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday November 22 2017, @08:07PM (1 child)

        by maxwell demon (1608) on Wednesday November 22 2017, @08:07PM (#600317) Journal

        The ladder.

        You want to make ladders out of sugarcane?

        --
        The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
        • (Score: 3, Funny) by Osamabobama on Wednesday November 22 2017, @10:03PM

          by Osamabobama (5842) on Wednesday November 22 2017, @10:03PM (#600373)

          No, the ladder is a low-tech solution to the same problem solved by the (high-tech) 747: leaving the ground.

          --
          Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
    • (Score: 2) by t-3 on Wednesday November 22 2017, @10:06PM

      by t-3 (4907) on Wednesday November 22 2017, @10:06PM (#600377)

      Am acre is a very small amount of land. Productivity/acre can also vary greatly depending on crop, climate, and methods. Economics are what should be considered - is it viable to grow fuel rather than unsustainably drill for it?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 22 2017, @06:21PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 22 2017, @06:21PM (#600277)

    the plane gets diabetes :(

  • (Score: 2) by crafoo on Wednesday November 22 2017, @10:06PM (1 child)

    by crafoo (6639) on Wednesday November 22 2017, @10:06PM (#600376)

    Using food-producing land for jet fuel is one of the dumbest things I've heard. Ah yeah, remember switchgrass? Biodiesel from corn? All fucking stupid.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 23 2017, @01:19AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 23 2017, @01:19AM (#600451)

      In Brazil they mandated ethanol fuel. It's been total [wikipedia.org] disaster [wikipedia.org].

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