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The Navy has put out a call to biofuel producers for 40,000 gallons of their best JP-5 aviation biofuel for use in test flights of the F/A - 18 Super Hornet.
The Navy will decide by the end of the month who gets the contract for the test flights. The choice of company will determine what feedstock will be used in the fuel, but jatropha, camelina and algae are all likely to be in the running and no food crops are being considered. Regardless of which type of feedstock is chosen, it will be used in a 50/50 blend with petroleum-based jet fuel for the tests.
Ground tests of the biofuel will be conducted at a General Electric facility in the coming months and within the next year test flights will begin, covering at least 15,000 miles. Boeing recently conducted a successful test flight of a 747 using a 50/50 blend of jatropha and jet fuel and saw significant fuel savings and emission reductions. It will be interesting to see if biofuels perform as well in a fighter jet.
The Navy hopes to have completed testing and approved a biofuel for use in their fighter jets by 2013 and is looking to do the same for its ships in the same time frame.
via U.S. Navy
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written by G van den berg, August 20, 2009
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written by mike jones, August 21, 2009
http://www.newscientist.com/ar...fuel.html
(via slashdot)
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written by GPN, August 21, 2009
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written by russ, August 21, 2009
If the manufacturer wants a sale plus generals and admirals want promoted they look to see which way the wind is blowing.
The whole story is a bit of fluff.
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written by Bob Wallace, August 21, 2009
Some (at least test models) are solar powered. These have the longest flight time (2+ days so far) and are probably most useful as observance rather than weapon platforms.
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written by Chris, August 25, 2009
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/in_the_know_how_can_we_make_the
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written by Ben du Feu, August 25, 2009
Bombs,
and starvation of the poor as there food producing land is stolen by rich companies to produce bio fuel which can in turn fly planes to kill more people. Genius.
I think its time bio fuel from most crops is banned.
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written by Bob Wallace, August 25, 2009
Try "switchgrass", "jatropha", "babassu", "kukui", "Croton" - just google.
Think about how these crops could create jobs for people living in very poor agricultural areas.
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written by Ben du Feu, August 25, 2009
And talking of providing jobs for the locals I'm sure it will but as time goes on, more and more land will be turned to bio fuel production as companies with money don't care about people, only growth and money and bio fuels produce much more money for big rich companies than food does, at the cost of human life.
I have read promising sounding reports on algae based bio fuels.
Land "too poor" for agricultural use can easily be improved by green manure, however I suppose money would be required to get seed for this.
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written by Bob Wallace, August 25, 2009
That's questionable. (And I'm a long time organic gardener who has turned some very marginal land into good gardens.)
If you want to get serious about green manure you've got to have the water and nutrients to grow the crops. And you've got little to no organic material in the soil to help you out.
Some crops, such as switchgrass take little water, do very well in poor quality soil, and build soil quality as they grow over years.
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Some of the oil nuts need to be harvested by hand and that means some paying jobs in areas where sources of income are scarce.
What we might consider a trivial amount of money can be a windfall in some places. In some places people can grow their own food and create their houses, even their clothes out of local materials, but cash to buy a few manufactured goods are hard to come by.
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(Time to move past C&P. Hank is setting new levels with his lithium piece. ;o)