08-07-2007, 08:43 PM
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#3
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The future is unwritten
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 71,105
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From Business Week.
Quote:
From Pond Scum To The Jet Tank
BusinessWeek 08/13/2007
Boeing (BA ) has teamed up with a handful of airlines to figure out how to make a jet engine that's efficient and environmentally friendly. Among the candidates for the biofuel that will power this engine: algae.
Turns out the green gunk that coats stagnant ponds and unkempt aquariums offers advantages over other efficient fuels, such as ethanol made from corn. Algae-based fuels may hold up better in the extreme temperatures, pressures, and weather conditions at which jets operate. What's more, algae is abundant and grows naturally, which should make it cheaper to harvest than crop-based fuels. Boeing is working on the project with New Zealand-based Aquaflow Bionomic and Air New Zealand.
Separately, Boeing is testing other types of biofuel with Virgin Atlantic Airways in an effort to convert an engine to run on clean fuel by 2008. A spokesman says one promising candidate is babassu, a Brazilian fruit similar to the coconut.
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The descent of man ~ Nixon, Friedman, Reagan, Trump.
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