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The aviation industry – a rapidly expanding sector – is looking for ways to secure its fuel supplies without increasing greenhouse gas emissions, says Fred Dryer. In the Green Room this week, he outlines some of the options available to deliver these goals.

There is wide agreement that to mitigate climate change, global greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced to 50% of 2005 levels by 2050, with industrialised countries cutting their emissions by 80%.

In order to achieve this goal, large increases in both energy efficiency and renewable energy will be required.

Biofuel alternatives to petroleum are getting much attention for both ground and air transportation.

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A new 95 Mega Watt power plant capable of turning 600,000 tonnes of waste each year into electricity and heat, to be built at Ince in Cheshire, was approved by the Government today.

The waste, which would have otherwise gone to landfill, will instead be used to generate electricity to power a new Resource Recovery Park. Excess electricity will also be exported to the National Grid.

The approval follows a public inquiry held into both the power plant and the Resource Recovery Park, which recommended that consent should be granted for the construction and operation of the plant and also that planning permission be given for the Resource Recovery Park.

Energy and Climate Change Minister Lord Hunt said:

“We need to increase our use of renewable energy and to find solutions to the UK’s waste problem. This power plant will convert over half a million tonnes of waste each year into energy.

“The Inspector recommended the power plant be granted consent after a thorough public inquiry. I am satisfied that the mitigation measures to be put in place will protect the amenity of local villages.”

The separate planning permission for the Resource Recovery Park was also given today by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, John Denham.

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A supercritical diesel engine could increase efficiency and cut emissions.

Researchers in New York have demonstrated a supercritical diesel fuel-injection system that can reduce engine emissions by 80 percent and increase overall efficiency by 10 percent.

Going supercritical: This laboratory equipment is being used to study supercritical diesel fuel.
Credit: George Anitescu, Syracuse University.

Diesel engines tend to be more efficient than gasoline, but the trade-off is that they are usually more polluting. Because diesel is heavy, viscose, and less volatile than gasoline, not all the fuel is burned during combustion, resulting in carbon compounds being released as harmful particulate soot. The higher combustion temperatures required to burn diesel also lead to increased nitrogen oxides emissions.

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What is renewable energy?

Anything that can be used to make heat or electricity without unsustainable fuels and which does not make a net contribution of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. This includes wind power, waves and the tides, solar energy, geothermal energy and biomass. Nuclear power, although it is low-carbon, cannot be counted as a renewable source of energy because its fuel, uranium, is finite.

What are the UK’s commitments on renewable?

The UK is committed to producing 15% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020 — this is equivalent to around 35% of its electricity.

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The activists damaged a 6.5km conveyor belt which transports 200,000 coal each year from Glentaggart to Ravenstruther.

Climate protesters today claimed to have disrupted the flow of coal from one of Scotland’s largest opencast mines to the Drax power station in north Yorkshire by sabotaging an major coal conveyor belt.

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The activists – who are believed to come from a Climate Camp, which opened earlier this week at Mainshill, the site of a planned opencast coalmine – damaged the conveyor belt at Glentaggart late yesterday, forcing the conveyor belt to be entirely closed down.

At 6.5km long, the conveyor belt is one of the longest in Europe and transports about 200,000 tonnes of coal each year from the Scottish Coal mine at Glentaggart to a dedicated railway depot at Ravenstruther. The company argues that the conveyor belt prevents about 30,000 lorry journeys a year. About 70% of Scottish opencast coal is sent south to power stations such as Drax in Yorkshire.
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Nuclear power is back at the top of the political agenda.

The UK relies on atomic energy for nearly 20% of its electricity. But all but one of its existing power stations are due to close by 2023.

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No reactors have been built since the 1980s, as accidents, spiralling decommissioning costs and the problem of nuclear waste eroded enthusiasm.

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As old manufacturing jobs dwindle across the country, the promise of clean energy manufacturing jobs looms large.

As the clean energy manufacturing base in this country grows, it often builds upon the facilities and expertise of struggling traditional industries.

Last week, my colleague Kirk Johnson wrote about how the old steel town of Pueblo, Colo., is adapting to the times with a new wind turbine plant. Similarly, in the town of San Angelo, Texas, a steel company took a 50 percent joint venture stake in a wind tower plant in June.

There are many more examples of the co-mingling of old and new industries. A few mills, suffering amid the pulp and paper industry’s retreat, are reorienting to process biofuels. These include a once-shuttered Maine pulp mill being refitted to make biobutanol, as well as two Wisconsin mills (see here and here) that will produce biodiesel from wood waste.
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The UK market for alternative fuels could be handed a boost by the establishment of a new quality protocol for biodiesel derived from waste cooking oil, it has been revealed.

Part of the Waste Protocols Projects – a joint scheme between the Environment Agency (EA) and the Waste & Resource Action Programme (WRAP) – the set of rules aims to clearly define the point at which waste becomes a fully recovered product.

By setting a standard point at which quality biodiesel derived from waste is no longer considered as a waste project itself, it is hoped that the quality protocol will encourage further production and trading.
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