Ages ago i wanted to blog about a UN expert speaking out and getting high profile attention in the media due to his message that biofuels were a “crime against humanity”. Certainly not mincing words, which is especially surprising coming from a UN source. I didn’t find the time back in November to do so, but now this week I have been gifted the opportunity to combine this with news coming out that switchgrass can generate 5 times as much fuel as it costs to produce. The study is in press with the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The whole trade-off between fuel versus feed which upset the gentleman from the UN was not addressed, but this potential from switchgrass comes in high-input systems, sidelining somewhat the poor and avoiding any dangerous trade-offs. The potential of switchgrass seems to be targeted to marginal lands in the US, but with these kinds of margins of net energy profit, this could become an option in other regions. Trade-off analysts are probably crunching numbers as we speak.
And while we are on the subject, note that Virgin Atlantic will make the first airline flight powered by 20% biofuel. They will not disclose the origin of the fuel, but indicate that it is “sustainable (i.e. not palm oil), won’t compete with food (i.e. not soy or canola), and won’t deplete fresh water resources (i.e. is already being grown with wastewater or soon will be)”. Further surfing led me to actually discover that “a Czechoslovakian L-29 jet—specially built in the 1960s by the Czech military to run on alternative fuels—flew for 37 minutes and reached an altitude of 17,000 feet (5,180 meters) powered entirely by reformulated canola oil”. You learn something new every day.
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