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The ‘Greening’ of Aviation
- the final justification for airport expansion -
Deepak Rughani
Biofuelwatch
Anti-aviation; concern for our future
Plane Stupid: Photograph: Alessia Pierdomenico/Reuters
Climate change protesters demonstrate against the
expansion of London's Heathrow airport. Photograph:
Alessia Pierdomenico/Reuters
Boris backs City Airport expanPosted September12th
2008, Richard/5
Plane Stupid: Photograph, Getty
Balance Sheet
• GHG emissions & climate
change
• Noxious gases
• Noise
• TPR
• Demand
500m in 2030 or 410m
flights/year or 360m
+ (?)
• Contribution to GDP
- infrastructure
- travel
• Mobility
• Jobs
All bases covered?
Damian Carrington New scientist
environmental blog
Corbis Collection: Imageshop
Medical University of South Carolina
Photo: 52.img.v4.skyrock.com
Two ‘green promises’
1. Fuel efficiency
IATA have created the
“Clearer Vision, Clearer
Skies” website
www.enviro.aero/
Two ‘green promises’
2. Biofuels
Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group, Sept 2008
EU RED legislation:
Biofuels in aviation fuel counts towards 10%
EU renewable energy target in transport fuels
So far, biofuels legitimise…
• Car manufacturers to repeal EU vehicle
emission standards from 120g/km to 130g/km
• For DfT to continue road expansion
• Soon…Could biofuels validate airport
expansion?
Investment
Vast sums
•
•
•
•
•
•
Oil
Biotech companies
Airlines
Aircraft manufacturers,
Government agencies (particularly in
Venture capitalists: large sums into research
How? Creative Accounting!
Side-step Direct ecosystem destruction
Ignore Indirect ecosystem destruction
• Palm oil / SE Asian peatlands 840 years
• Soya/Amazon forest: 320 years
• Corn on set-aside: 43 years
Joseph Fargione et al
Woodlark Island PNG
More Creative Accounting!
Underestimate Nitrous Oxide Emissions
Crutzen et al
• Rapeseed biodiesel = 1-1.7 times
• Ethanol from sugar beet leaves = 1.5-2.4 times
Include Reduced Land-Use-Change for Co-Products!!
Agricultural spraying. From Colorado State
University Environmental Health Advanced
Systems Laboratory
http://oceanworld.tamu.edu/resources/e
nvironmentbook/groundwatercontamination.html
Ignore Human Hunger
• 2007: 860m
2009: 1,000m (UN FAO)
• Over 70% of food price inflation is attributable to
agrofuels
World Bank, July 08
Try going
without food
for a single
day!
Ignore What NGOs & Experts are Saying
• “The world’s 880 million hungry people are
fighting a losing battle with the world’s 800
million cars for access to food crops.” Action Aid
• “Biofuels are a crime against humanity”
Jean Ziegler, former special UN Rapporteur on
the Right to Food, Oct 07
• ““From a climate change perspective, current
biofuels are worse than fossil fuels”
Joseph Fargione
Ignore Land Expropriation
Expropriation by arson, Paraguay
Military control, Colombia
www.grr.org.ar
Ignore Ecosystem Loss
Fires to clear land for palm oil,
Kalimantan
Photo by Nordin, Save our Borneo
Deforestation for oil palms,
Colombia
Risks of large-scale ecosystem collapse
African Palm in Indonesia
GHGs from deforestation contribute
20% global GHG emissions (IPCC AR4)
70,000 fires burn in Amazon,
September 2007. NASA
High Risk of Ecosystem Collapse
++
Acceleration of climate
feedbacks e.g. dehydration
Ongoing lost capacity to
sequester CO2
+
Sink release: Forest burning, peat/soil
oxidation
10-fold ? = 1000%
carbon increase
N2O emissions underestimated
by 50-150%
+ 50% / +70%
- 40% ?
GHG reduction
Tractor runs, refining, transportation,
Fertilizers, pesticides etc
Fossil Fuel Diesel & Petroleum
Micro- vs. MacroLife-Cycle Impacts of Agro-Biofuels
Biofuel Sources and Test Flights
Virgin Atlantic
Coconut & Babassu Oil
February 2008, Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 test flight
(Heathrow to Amsterdam) using 5% coconut oil.
150,000 coconuts required
Guardian headline:
“Forests Cleared for Takeoff?”
Red Pepper headline:
“Virgin on Disaster”
Air New Zealand, Continental, Japan Airlines
…have all conducted trials, with Jatropha a popular feedstock
Jatropha caucus
www.outlookseries.com/news/Science/3686.htm
Air New Zealand, Boeing, Rolls Royce
and UOP
• Over the Christmas Break Air New Zealand,
Boeing, Rolls Royce and UOP conducted a
test flight where one engine on a Boeing 747400 ran on a 50:50 blend of Jatropha and Jet
Fuel.
Continental Airlines
• On 7th Jan 09 Continental Airlines did a test
flight with a plane using, in one of the plane’s two
engines, biofuel fuel derived from algae and
jatropha plants
• JetBlue Airways is preparing for an Airbus A320200 trial by spring 2010. Feedstocks being
considered for the trial include jatropha, algae,
and waste forest residues.
• Most research into algae involves genetically
engineering new species using synthetic
biology
Military
L-29 military aircraft,
Czechoslovakia
Aero L-29 Delfín
Military training
50% fuel for lower 48 US
states from domestic ‘non oil
sources’ by 2016
Alternatives to Kerosene
1. Fischer Tropsch gas & coal gasification > syngas >
aviation fuel
(2008, Sasoil had coal-to-liquids fuel certified for aviation)
2 Fischer Tropsch biomass gasification > syngas >
aviation fuel
3 Now pyrolysis of biomass > bio-oil and syngas >
(+ biochar/charcoal)
> Fischer Tropsch > aviation fuel
Algal Bioreactors
Knol
http://knol.google.com
/k/partha-dassharma/biofuel-fromalgae/oml631csgjs7/12
#Knol
The Energy Blog
http://thefraserd
omain.typepad.c
om/energy/2006/
12/arizona_publi
c_.html
Biofuels get Political Endorsement…
• Geoff Hoon
“One of the big challenges that many of you are
embracing is to make commercial aviation
biofuels a reality within five years and a major
fuel source by 2050.”
Hey Presto!
• Lord Turner said that biofuels could allow UK
climate targets to be met even if aviation
expansion, including a Heathrow Third
Runway, went ahead.
Job done!
Anti-Agrofuels: concern for our future
Anti-Biofuel Protests…