As airlines struggle to find cleaner ways to power jets and with an industry-wide meeting on carbon dioxide emissions just months away, scientists are busy growing algae in vast open tanks at an Airbus Group SE site in Ottobrun, near Munich.
The European aerospace group is part-financing the Munich Technical University project to grow algae for biofuel and, although commercial production is a long way off, hopes are high.
Thomas Brueck, an associate professor of industrial biocatalysis at the university, says that the biofuel from algaculture could cater for 3 to 5 percent of jet fuel needs by about 2050.
Algae can grow 12 times faster than plants cultivated on soil and produces an oil yield about 30 times that of rapeseed.
However, although aviation biofuel made from feedstocks such as flax or used cooking oil is already available, limited stocks and low oil prices mean only a few airlines, including Lufthansa and KLM, are using it on a trial basis.
“To substitute 100 percent of the kerosene use today, we will not do it with algae alone,” Brueck said. “We need a combination of different technologies to actually enable that substitution.”
Separately, Nissan Motor Co on Tuesday said it is developing fuel-cell technology that can power cars using plant-based ethanol, a first for the auto industry, and hopes to launch the system in time for Tokyo’s 2020 Olympics.
The automaker said its experimental technology would let vehicles drive more than 600km on a single fill, similar to gasoline-powered cars.
Nissan said it would use bio-ethanol, which comes from crops like sugarcane and corn, as a hydrogen source as it broadens a “green car” strategy that has largely focused on electric vehicles.
The company said its technology would first be made available to firms and local governments by 2020.
Additional reporting by AFP
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