When we hear about reducing carbon emissions and easing our dependence on petroleum based fuel, we often think of the airline industry. Commercial aviation uses roughly sixty billion gallons of fuel annually. The industry contributes 2% of man-made carbon dioxide emissions, according to the International Air Transport Assn, a trade group that represents nearly 250 airlines.
Boeing is looking to find a different way.
The aircraft manufacturing company announced a joint venture with South African Airways and SkyNRG to develop aviation fuel from a new hybrid tobacco plant.
The plant is called Solaris. It is less leafy than smoking tobacco, and has more seeds. Seeds contain the oil that is used to produce bio-fuel. Interestingly, Solaris is virtually nicotine-free.
This won’t the the first time Boeing has been involved with bio-fuel testing. They previosuly worked to produce jet fuel from timber waste and forest byproducts, which can be found en masse in the company’s backyard in the Pacific Northwest.
The issue with most successful tests is that there is not enough of it in the world. Tobacco, on the other hand, is a crop looking for an alternate use. Instead of growing tobacco for smoking, farmers could sell a slightly modified version of the plant to be sold for energy and fuel.
The price is expected to be competitive with fuel, and the decrease in pollution would be huge. A representative from Boeing remarked that there could be a 50% – 80% reduction in carbon emissions compared to petroleum.
While the solution seems do-able for Boeing, there would be many obstacles to creating enough bio-fuel for the world. Production would have to expand to many regions, and still most likely require major distribution to supply major airports.
South African Airways has plans to start blending bio-fiel into regular aviation fuel next year. They have an ulterior motive for the project, bolstering the rural economy in South Africa. They have already begun test farming there. Food & water supplies have been unharmed. The plan appears to be a sustainable supply chain for aviation biofuels.
Here’s to finding a new use for tobacco!
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