British Airways to buy jet fuel from city waste
Under a deal with biofuel company Solena Group, British Airways will start “sourcing a small portion of its jet fuel from municipal waste” in 2014.
British Airways said it had signed a deal to purchase all the “sustainable jet fuel” that Solena could make from a plant expected to be sited in London and operational from 2014.
The plant would convert 500,000 tons of waste annually into 16 million gallons of green jet fuel, which the two companies calculated would reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared with burning normal jet fuel.
Security scanner firms step up marketing
Since the incident on Christmas day, scanner companies are ramping up their marketing efforts.
The claims are bold: Intellicheck Mobilisa Inc., for example, which makes hand-held ID card-scanners, says in a product pitch that the attempted bombing on Dec. 25 “could have been prevented” by its technology.
Aviation-security specialists are skeptical of such claims and caution that advanced technology is only one way to fight terrorism. Some say excess focus on equipment diverts attention from training staff to spot trouble.
Biofuel could power airline industry by 2037
Commercial airlines may use 100 percent biofuel by 2037 in a best-case scenario according to a report by E4tech.
Air Transport Action Group Executive Director Paul Steele, who fronted the industry’s delegation at Copenhagen in December 2009, used an A380 event in Geneva on Jan. 21 to detail biofuel progress. According to Steele, a recent UK Climate Change Committee study conducted by E4tech showed that a worst-case scenario saw a 40% replacement of existing fuel with biofuels by 2040 and a best case of 100% by 2035-37.
(Photo: caribb/Flickr Creative Commons)
