Criminalising fossil fuels on land, sea and air in the carbon craze that makes life more difficult for all
 The Children's Crusade of environmentalists led by Greta Thunberg and her legions of sophomoric adults who insist on having a world little different from the one demanded by Mao's Red Guards of the 1960s.
These environmentalists are the shock troops, whose aims are not taken seriously as realistic goals, but are nonetheless encouraged by grownups of the media, academic, bureaucratic complex.
What smooth sailing they have enjoyed turns out to be more apparent than real as they discover they cannot achieve their ambitious objectives without creating real and present political dangers worldwide.
Their aim is carbon zero, which means the replacement of fossil fuels with renewable energy. But the International Energy Commission (IEA) has done the maths and finds that between the dream and reality, there is a great gulf fixed.
After decades of promoting and subsidising renewable energy, the IEA points out that eco fuels have only accounted for increasing their proportion of the world's energy needs from 13 per cent to 14 per cent. And by the time 2050 rolls around, when we are mandated to reach 100 per cent zero carbon emissions, the IEA reckons eco fuels will be only be able to supply 28 per cent of global energy needs.
Thus, nukes are to save the day at least in shipping at first. The raison d'etre of nuclear power is to provide one-time bunkering for life and act as replacement for abundant, but increasingly criminalised, fossil fuel. Having nuclear power do the job in shipping would be a major step in banning abundant, affordable fossil fuel.
Here is where the mega corporations cash in. Leftists wrongly cast them in the role of Little Orphan Annie's capitalist villain Daddy Warbucks, but the truth is they are genuinely enamored of the eco-craze. After all, they stand to benefit because regulators drive up environmental compliance costs so high that smaller players are driven out of business and the big fish gobble up market share.
Once nuclear power is adopted afloat, it will undoubtedly be introduced ashore. This will become necessary to meet the demands of the anti-carbon craze to ban fossil fuels.
Nukes suit some, but not others. Aviation, given the scale and weight of nuclear reactors, cannot think in these terms, but must turn to biofuels. One is struck by the enthusiasm for alternative fuels expressed by aviation technology giant, North Carolina's Honeywell.
"In the transition from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy, one of the hardest problems to solve is air travel. The first electric car was invented in the same century as the gas-powered vehicles we know today: the 1800s. And yet, in the 120-year history of aviation, electric flight is only now becoming possible," said the Honeywell essay.
Biofuels are simply not as good. That’s because fossil fuels are incredibly energy dense. Jet fuel stores 43 times more energy for its weight than today’s best batteries. But with carbon dioxide emissions from commercial aircraft set to triple by 2050, according to the International Council on Clean Transportation, the aviation industry will need technology to reduce its impact and become more sustainable.
"One solution that excites airlines, airplane manufacturers and government regulators is sustainable aviation fuel. A low-carbon alternative to conventional, petroleum-based jet fuel, sustainable aviation fuel is made from renewable materials such as mustard seeds, sugar cane and used cooking oil," said the Honeywell article.
"Traditional jet fuel is made from carbon-rich crude oil that is extracted from the ground. When it is burned in aircraft engines, that carbon is released into the atmosphere. Sustainable aviation fuel, however, is made from animal byproducts or agricultural waste, oils from plants and other biomass. When biofuel is made from mustard seeds, for example, new mustard plants absorb and store the carbon molecules released in its combustion, making it renewable," it said.
Over the life cycle of the fuel’s production and use, renewable fuels such as Honeywell Sustainable Aviation Fuel can lower carbon emissions up to 80 per cent.
“Sustainable aviation fuel is one of the few pathways to decarbonising flight today because it is a drop-in technology,” said Leigh Abrams, renewable fuels offering manager at Honeywell. “You can use it in the existing fleet of airplanes without having to reconfigure the engines or change the fueling operations at the airport. And we know how to produce it today.”
Currently, aircraft can typically use a combination of up to 50 per cent renewable jet fuel blended with traditional jet fuel from petroleum. But in December 2021, United Airlines marked a milestone by flying the first passenger flight powered by 100 per cent biofuel from Chicago to Washington, DC.
"The renewable jet fuel for that flight was produced using Honeywell’s EcofiningTM technology, which makes it possible to make sustainable aviation fuel from more feedstocks. As governments provide incentives to produce more renewable jet fuel or set targets for adoption, it will be crucial to produce SAF from more feedstocks to scale production," the company said.
“We’re aiming to produce sustainable fuels at the lowest overall cost. The lower the cost of renewable fuel, the easier we can make the transition to cleaner energy.”
Together, Honeywell and United Airlines have invested in Alder Fuels, a clean tech pioneer, to produce renewable jet fuel from low-cost feedstocks such as woody biomass waste, cornstalks and other crop waste.
When used together, the Alder technologies and Honeywell Ecofining are highly scalable - to meet the growing demand for sustainable aviation fuel - and could produce the first truly carbon neutral jet fuel.
"How will we make renewable jet fuel in the future?
The more abundant the feedstock and the more efficiently it can be converted to renewable jet fuel, the lower the cost - making the clean energy transition achievable for aviation."
As other industries make the energy transition, it opens new possibilities for more sustainable air travel. According to the US Energy Information Administration, the United States alone currently produces about 15 billion gallons of ethanol fuel a year, mostly for use in cars. And as hybrid and electric vehicles replace traditional petrol-powered cars, we may expect to see more and more surplus fuel ethanol capacity.
“It is exciting to see the level of commitment from governments, airlines, passengers and businesses to decarbonising aviation,” Honeywell said. “We need more than one pathway to solve that problem, and our technology is evolving very quickly. We’re figuring out how to make mass air travel truly sustainable.”
It is good to keep in mind that when one speaks of government "commitment" and "encouragement", one speaks of measures that further criminalise the use of fossil fuel which are cheaper and better at what they are supposed to do that alternative fuels.
But we must make sacrifices to save the planet, they say. How and from what will it be destroyed, one asks. |
