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A breakthrough moment for sustainable aviation fuel / Depositphotos A simple, cheap pretreatment promises to radically cut the price of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) made from waste wood biomass – potentially making it cost-competitive with fossil-based jet fuel, while cutting down emissions by up to 80%. SAF isn't a perfect green solution to aviation – indeed, no perfect solution exists at this point. Running SAF instead of jet fuel still produces carbon dioxide – but it's a higher-purity fuel, producing up to 3% more energy while burning cleaner, with heavily reduced sulfur and particulate emissions. It eliminates the entire emissions...

A new aviation company has developed a type of jet fuel made entirely from human sewage. Chemists at a lab in Gloucestershire have turned the waste into kerosene. James Hygate, Firefly Green Fuels CEO, said: "We wanted to find a really low-value feedstock that was highly abundant. And of course poo is abundant." Independent tests by international aviation regulators found it was nearly identical to standard fossil jet fuel. Firefly's team worked with Cranfield University to examine the fuel's life cycle carbon impact. It concluded that Firefly's fuel has a 90% lower carbon footprint than standard jet fuel. Mr Hygate,...

Gas prices could climb well above their current near-record levels to “apocalyptic” heights if hurricane season results in significant disruptions for US oil refiners ... efforts to lower prices could be “overwhelmed if we have an active tropical season” that impacts domestic refining efforts in the Gulf of Mexico, OPIS energy analysis global head Tom Kloza ... insidious for inflation are the values for diesel and jet fuel. Stocks of those fuels are not building, they’re tight internationally and that’s where we’re going to have to pay the piper in the last 100 days of the year.” Hurricanes in the...

A revolutionary cryogenic tank design promises to radically boost the range of hydrogen-powered aircraft – to the point where clean, fuel-cell airliners could fly up to four times farther than comparable planes running on today's dirty jet fuel. Weight is the enemy of all things aerospace – indeed, hydrogen's superior energy storage per weight is what makes it such an attractive alternative to lithium batteries in the aviation world. We've written before about HyPoint's turbo air-cooled fuel cell technology, but its key differentiator in the aviation market is its enormous power density compared with traditional fuel cells. For its high...

US jet-fuel inventories have fallen to a seventeen-year low. More troubling is that jet-fuel inventories for the US East Coast (PADD 1) have fallen to a 25-year low. Tight fuel supplies ahead of a traditionally busy travel season may suggest ticket prices could jump. U.S. inventories of jet-fuel are at the lowest level for this time of the year in 17 years. For the East coast (PADD 1), they are the lowest seasonal level since 1997. Airline programs suggest a big rise in flights coming in the next 5 months. Jet is going to be very tight #OOTT — Javier...

Wholesale jet fuel prices in New York have risen more than 162% since mid-March, as buyers at some of the world’s busiest airports, located on the US East Coast, anticipate dwindling supplies as Western sanctions shun Russian energy exports. On Monday, jet fuel prices jumped 93 cents to $7.61 a gallon, a new record high, according to Bloomberg data going back to 1988. According to Reuters, there are two major issues. The first is East Coast depends on fuel shipments via the Texas-to-New Jersey Colonial Pipeline for refined products and imports from Europe. But there’s been a snag as distillate...

We recently warned that Europe is about to be hit with an unprecedented shortage of diesel, as gas stations run dry of the vital liquid (according to the CEOs of the world’s largest independent energy merchants), but little did we know that the first actual crisis would hit in America’s own back yard and not just anywhere but the state synonymous with commodity extraction: on Monday, airport officials in Austin, Texas warned of an impending jet-fuel shortage amid a surge in travel to and from the state’s capital city. Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, which is ranked No. 29 in the U.S....

A significant increase in air traffic and the nation-wide worker shortage forced Nantucket Memorial Airport to suspend Jet-A fuel sales over the weekend.Fuel has since arrived on the island and sales were back on Monday, but there could be implications down the line for the small airport.Fuel usage is up 60 percent this year compared to 2019, as commercial flights have increased more than 30 percent on the island, and up to 40 percent for private jets.Assistant airport manager Noah Karberg says they've also been impacted by a low number of fuel truck drivers during the pandemic, and there has...

Nantucket Memorial Airport has run out of jet fuel at the peak of summer, impacting commercial and private flights at one of New England’s busiest transportation hubs. On Saturday the airport suspended jet fuel sales and informed commercial carriers that they needed to fly into the island fully loaded with fuel due to the shortage.Airport officials said Saturday night that they were not only facing overwhelming demand for jet fuel, but also a logistical nightmare in getting fuel tanker trucks to the island due to record competition for reservations this summer on the Steamship Authority ferries. They also cited a...

In Nevada, state and federal lawmakers said they are investigating a possible shortage of jet fuel that could delay cargo delivery and passenger travel at Reno-Tahoe International Airport in the coming days. A spike in demand for jet fuel both by commercial airlines and from firefighting aircraft in Montana and the Pacific Northwest led to departure problems and daylong flight delays recently at Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport. In California, recent flights in and out of Fresno Yosemite International Airport were disrupted by jet fuel shortages blamed on the lack of tanker truck driver deliveries.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. energy company says a cyberattack forced it to temporarily halt all operations on a major pipeline that delivers roughly 45% of all fuel consumed on the East Coast. Colonial Pipeline said the attack took place Friday and also affected some of its information technology systems. The company transports gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and home heating oil from refineries primarily located on the Gulf Coast through pipelines running from Texas to New Jersey. The Alpharetta, Georgia-based company said it hired an outside cybersecurity firm to investigate the nature and scope of the attack and has also...

Three people worked together to rescue a truck driver after a massive cargo explosion in Indianapolis on Thursday — and one of them had just given birth. “We see a plume of smoke, huge smoke, it looked like a warehouse was on fire,” Holly McNally told Fox 59. “I slowed down, and I saw the actual semi on fire, and I look to the front of the semi and I see a man on fire,” McNally said. But while most people at the scene were content to record the agonizing death of an immolated stranger, McNally refused to join the...

A simple visit to an obscure factory by Chinese President Xi on Monday is all it took to raise the specter that China could be contemplating cutting off supply of critical materials to the U.S. and potentially crippling large swathes of its industries. Also, fueled by political innuendo in Xi’s recent call for a new “Long March” in reference to a key founding tenet of the Chinese Communist Party, speculators are growing increasingly wary of Chinese export restrictions to the U.S., including rare earth minerals. As the world’s largest producer, the Middle Kingdom has a vice-like grip on rare earths...

On Wednesday, according to The Hill, the White House Office of Management and Budget approved new plans to regulate airplane emissions. The Environmental Protection Agency will now hold hearings on the prospective findings, then write up regulation. According to the OMB, the EPA has shown that such emissions justify an “endangerment finding” because they affect climate change; the regulations will reportedly “align… with regulations that the International Civil Aviation Organization, an agency of the United Nations, is developing.” So the Obama administration wants to crack down on emissions from airplanes. Except, of course, if President Obama is aboard. Then, it’s...

Georgia lawmakers may eliminate a tax break for all airlines buying jet fuel at the world’s busiest airport. A bill filed in the House would cut the exemption at Atlanta’s Hartsfield Jackson Airport. Supportive lawmakers say it would help the state get federal money for aviation improvements throughout the state. They also argue the credit shouldn’t be kept in place forever....

U.S. aerospace giant Boeing says it is working with South African Airways and a Dutch biofuel company to make jet fuel from tobacco seeds. The Dutch firm, SkyNRG, is boosting its production in South Africa of a hybrid, nicotine-free, tobacco crop called Solaris with “biofuel production expected… in the next few years,” the three companies said in a statement. “Initially, oil from the plant’s seeds will be converted into jet fuel. In coming years, Boeing expects emerging technologies to increase South Africa’s aviation biofuel production from the rest of the plant,” added the firms. Aviation biofuel, made from renewable resources...

The Department of Defense (DOD) paid $150 per gallon for alternative jet fuel made from algae, more than 64 times the current market price for standard carbon-based fuels, according to a report released on Wednesday. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) noted in its report that a Pentagon official reported paying “about $150 per gallon for 1,500 gallons of alternative jet fuel derived from algal oil.” GAO’s report examined the financial challenges facing increased purchases and use of alternative jet fuels by federal agencies. “Currently, the price for alternative jet fuels exceeds that of conventional jet fuel,” the report noted. The...

Dec. 12, 2013, 2:39 a.m. EST Google execs got discount on jet fuel, says NASA By Mark Maremont Top Google Inc. executives saved millions of dollars by flying their private jet fleet on discounted fuel purchased from the federal government that they weren’t entitled to buy, according to a new inspector general review released Wednesday. The report, by the inspector general of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, said the Google executives only were authorized to buy the discounted fuel for government business, but instead for six years also were allowed to purchase it for private flights. Click to Play...

Google Inc. founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin may have to dig deeper to operate their fleet of private jets, after the U.S. Department of Defense ended a little-known arrangement that for years allowed the tech billionaires to travel on sharply discounted jet fuel bought from the Pentagon. The agreement between the Google founders and the government, which started in 2007, ended Aug. 31 after officials at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration—which sponsored the arrangement—opted not to renew it, according to a Pentagon spokeswoman. The move followed discussions earlier this year between the Pentagon and NASA over whether the...

Qatar Airways completed the first commercial flight this week using fuel produced from natural gas, the company said. The flight used fuel from the Pearl GTL plant in Qatar, through a partnership between the airline and the plant, jointly owned by Qatar Petroleum and Shell. The fuel was made from a blend of gas-to-liquids kerosene and conventional oil-derived jet fuel. It powered an Airbus A340-600 on a flight from Doha to London, the companies said in a statement. Shell says its gas-to-liquids products have fewer emissions than conventional jet fuel and are more environmentally friendly. The gas-to-liquids kerosene can comprise...