SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
posted by
CoolHand
on Tuesday November 15 2016, @08:27PM
from the if-a-tree-falls-in-the-forest-can-i-join-the-mile-high-club dept.
from the if-a-tree-falls-in-the-forest-can-i-join-the-mile-high-club dept.
Washington state-based Alaska Airlines today made history flying the first commercial flight using the world's first renewable, alternative jet fuel made from forest residuals, the limbs and branches that remain after the harvesting of managed forests.
The fuel used a 20 percent blend of sustainable aviation biofuel.
While 20% doesn't seem like much (it's still 80% aviation fuel), if the airline were able to replace 20 percent of its entire fuel supply at Sea-Tac Airport (from which it took off), it would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 142,000 metric tons of CO2. This is equivalent to taking approximately 30,000 passenger vehicles off the road for one year.
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
Alaska Airlines Makes History With Bio-Fuel Flight
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 40 comments
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Fascinating is a word I use for the unexpected.
-- Spock, "The Squire of Gothos", stardate 2124.5
(Score: 4, Informative) by edIII on Wednesday November 16 2016, @12:33AM
When the oil runs out, we probably won't be here. The science is done. It says we are done unless we stop pulling that shit up and burning it, and then releasing the toxins into the atmosphere along with unsustainable levels of CO2 output.
We are actually past the point where we need to put it back into the ground, but we're still dreaming up better and better ways to get it out, while arguing that peak oil and climate change are myths.
Of course there is nothing wrong with sourcing our fuel from biofuels, unless you speak with an energy lobbyist, and then it's flat out fucking red pinko commie activities. The Trumpanzees are already here flinging poo around and enjoying the liberals tears while all of us together still have access to biofuels. Kinda says it all about them, IMO.
I've got one of the usual questions: At which point will our very survival become more important than economic concerns invariably related to the self serving whining of a few rich people?
You make some fine points, but I don't see alternative fuels. I see a type of fuel killing us, and then all the other types of fuel. The choice is merely an emergent property of the disingenuous and continual debate over whether oil is truly bad, and if the environment can ever be harmed by man. The fact is, there are no choices. Just a direction that has the highest chance of survival, which ironically humans used to be good at selecting.
If economics turns out to be anything, it will be the single greatest force against human adaptability ever. Probably what alien civilizations indicate as the cause of our death: "Aliens developed economies, but then served the economies, instead of more intelligently allowing the economies to serve them".
20% is a start. That's progress, and good news. Great news is when it is mandated by law, but that can only happen once Trump is killed, or if the next 4 years isn't the beginning of a dark age for America.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Wednesday November 16 2016, @01:18PM
Oil's bad. And over time its extraction becomes more and more expensive, while biofuel research makes alternative fuels less and less expensive. This is a good thing.
It means that at some point, the problem will solve itself, and biofuel will win economically; oil will be too expensive to bother with relative to better alternatives.