Researchers have identified a new route for turning sugars into jet fuel and lubricants for the automotive industry. The researchers demonstrated the use of sugar cane as the raw material for the production of the new jet fuel - which is derived both from the sugars themselves in the sugar juice and from the plant waste remaining after squeezing the sugar juice from the canes
For the original article on the website Zeta - a news agency for science and the environment
An article about Innovations in the aviation industry, which are expected to make it less polluting and contribute less to climate change. New research The United States makes an important contribution to this trend: in recent years there has been considerable progress in land and sea use of renewable energy or low emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases. Nuclear reactors which are characterized by low greenhouse gas emissions and pollutants have been providing electricity for decades to power plants and ships. Already today there are countries where tens of percent of electricity production originates from renewable energies, andInnovations in the field are emerging all the time. The production and use of electric vehicles is gaining momentum, and of course there are vehicles powered by bio-fuels. However, the uniqueness of airplanes is that they are relatively small (compared to ships or land facilities), and therefore cannot carry large amounts of fuel. On the other hand, they consume large amounts of energy at every moment. Although, already exist Solar planes and electric, but they are small, slow and cannot be compared to modern jet planes. They did start flying with biofuels, but this field is also not yet sufficiently developed. In addition, today there are no renewable lubricants for the automotive industry at all.
Jet fuel is special in that it has several special properties: it cannot contain oxygen, but only hydrocarbons that have a high energy content. Oxygen in the fuel means that the plane is carrying excess weight that does not contribute energy to the flight (the plane gets the oxygen to burn the fuel from the atmosphere, of course). Jet fuel also needs to have certain boiling points and mass, so that it breaks down properly under flight conditions, that it does not become viscous or thick at the low temperatures to which jet aircraft are exposed at high altitude, and that it can act as a lubricant to prevent engine wear.
In the new study, they identified a new route for turning sugars into jet fuel and lubricants for the automotive industry. The researchers demonstrated the use of sugar cane as the raw material for the production of the new jet fuel - it originates both from the sugars themselves in the sugar juice and from the vegetable waste remaining after squeezing the sugar juice from the canes. According to the researchers, the new route could save 80 percent of greenhouse gas emissions than fuels that rely on fossil fuels.
The research, by the way, is funded by the British oil giant BP, which is responsible for the worst oil spill in history, which occurred in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.
In the scientific-environmental community there is criticism of this direction of research: sugarcane is grown mainly in Brazil, on lands created from rainforests, so there may be competition between fuel production and food production. In addition, the calculation of the 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions mentioned above does not take into account the huge carbon emissions from the sugar cane growing area, which occurs in the process of greening the rainforest.
Despite this criticism, until other ways are found, this direction seems to be the least harmful to the environment among the alternatives that exist today for producing jet fuel and lubricants for transportation.
To read the original study on the PNAS website
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