Posted by
Aaron McLucas on Sunday, May 04, 2008 8:59:29 PM
How about this story. Sir Richard Benson, president of Virgin Records showed off a biofuel 747. Whoopy-do.
Never mind that only one of the plane's engines used biofuel, and that was about 25 percent mixed with standard kerosene jet fuel.
The biofuel used - a combination of coconut and babassu (a Brazilian tree) oil, which Branson pretended to drink that day like an island cocktail from a coconut shell - worked in this very small test. But even its developers, Imperium Renewables, are aware it could never become a substitute for what John Plaza, president and chief executive of Imperium, another sponsor, says is the 87 billion gallons of fuel needed each year to fly the world's airline fleet.
I guess the fact that diesel powered vehicles have been doing this for quite a while doesn't count. And obviously there is no possible way to biofuel the airline industry. The amount of land needed to make that happen would surely end any ability to feed the people of this world. But that is not important. What is important is making this product work so they can sell a bunch of it.
As I have said before, getting into the business of 'green' is the way to make money, whether it's biodiesel or recycling. It won't last forever though. Eventually the world will wise up and realize that biofuel is limited in it's usefulness.