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Kane Ala
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Biofuels being grown in the desert… with saltwater
While we are waiting for Fusion to be perfected, there could be another untapped fuel resource much closer to being ready. Darrin L. Morgan, Director Sustainable
Aviation Fuels and Environmental Strategy at Boeing, reveals that researchers at the Masdar Institute in Abu Dhabi, funded by Boeing, Honeywell and Etihad Airways, may have achieved “the biggest breakthrough in biofuels ever”.
Alarmed by the poor quality of fuel made from shale oil and tar sands and frustrated by the blunt refusal of oil companies to provide fuel of better quality, Boeing and its partners have over the past 4 years funded research into alternative fuels that has led to spectacular results. They found a class of plants that can grow in desertson salt water and has superb biomass potential.
Nobody knew this”, says Morgan. “It is a huge discovery. A game-changer for the biofuels market.
These plants, known as halophytes, are adapted to growing in arid conditions on saltwater, and can be readily turned into sugars, which in turn can be converted into high-quality biofuel usable in today’s engines. Deserts have always had the space on which to potentially grow biofuels, but the lack of freshwater in these regions prevented the agriculture being possible. These new plants could mean that huge stretches of currently barren coastline could be converted into fuel-producing areas, without using up arable land or grain crops which would otherwise be used for food. This truly could change world economies.
http://blogs.sap.com/innovation/inn...LNB&source=onlinedisplay-us-general-tld-US004
While we are waiting for Fusion to be perfected, there could be another untapped fuel resource much closer to being ready. Darrin L. Morgan, Director Sustainable
Alarmed by the poor quality of fuel made from shale oil and tar sands and frustrated by the blunt refusal of oil companies to provide fuel of better quality, Boeing and its partners have over the past 4 years funded research into alternative fuels that has led to spectacular results. They found a class of plants that can grow in desertson salt water and has superb biomass potential.
Nobody knew this”, says Morgan. “It is a huge discovery. A game-changer for the biofuels market.
These plants, known as halophytes, are adapted to growing in arid conditions on saltwater, and can be readily turned into sugars, which in turn can be converted into high-quality biofuel usable in today’s engines. Deserts have always had the space on which to potentially grow biofuels, but the lack of freshwater in these regions prevented the agriculture being possible. These new plants could mean that huge stretches of currently barren coastline could be converted into fuel-producing areas, without using up arable land or grain crops which would otherwise be used for food. This truly could change world economies.
http://blogs.sap.com/innovation/inn...LNB&source=onlinedisplay-us-general-tld-US004
): Would current interests want to compete with a plant that derives the same results as all that expensive technology?
