Bio-powered flight is not the exclusive dream of San Francisco startup Solazyme. There have bee recent bio-flight advancements from Virgin Airlines, which flew from London to Amsterdam using biofuel in February, and the BioJet I. But Solazyme announced it has reached a small milestone that could make greener flying easier for everyone: it has created jet fuel from algae.
This new bio-jet fuel source is not up for mass production quite yet. The first test batch was just 5 to 10 gallons, but the company said that it "had passed eleven tests necessary for use in aviation" at the Southwest Research Institute (a list of those tests is available from Solazyme). Should Solazyme's jet fuel become popular with airlines - and it might, if the company's estimate that the algae fuel would be price competitive with $40- to $80-per-barrel oil - then "potential output will only be limited by the availability of feedstock."
Earlier this year, Solazyme drove an algae biodiesel-fueled car at Sundance
[Source: SFGate, Solazyme]
This new bio-jet fuel source is not up for mass production quite yet. The first test batch was just 5 to 10 gallons, but the company said that it "had passed eleven tests necessary for use in aviation" at the Southwest Research Institute (a list of those tests is available from Solazyme). Should Solazyme's jet fuel become popular with airlines - and it might, if the company's estimate that the algae fuel would be price competitive with $40- to $80-per-barrel oil - then "potential output will only be limited by the availability of feedstock."
Earlier this year, Solazyme drove an algae biodiesel-fueled car at Sundance
[Source: SFGate, Solazyme]
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