Given that the world’s airline companies are viewed as the
main contributors of man-made carbon dioxide even though they just contribute
about 3-percent overall, will British Airways’ plan to make kerosene from domestic
wastes eventually boost the airline company’s “green credentials”?
By: Ringo Bones
Even though they only contribute around 3-percent of the
overall man-made carbon dioxide emissions into the Earth’s atmosphere, the
world’s airline companies has since been under somewhat unfair scrutiny when it
comes to those man-made activities that exacerbates the ongoing climate change
that could eventually result in sea-level rise and an increase in the number of
droughts and rainfall pattern disruption. But will the British Airways’ plans
to make aviation grade kerosene from domestic wastes eventually lower their
overall carbon dioxide emissions?
At present, conservative funded think-tanks are still
publishing data that the manufacture of hydrocarbon-based fuels from biomass
and related material like domestic and agricultural wastes offer no less
overall carbon dioxide emission reduction as opposed to refining these fuels
directly from crude oil. The very fact that most of the world’s crude oil
supply comes from less-than-friendly nation-states only bolster every tenured
scientists’ attempts at making hydrocarbon based fuels from “alternative” and “renewable”
sources.
Willie Walsh, Chief Executive of IAG – International Airline
Group, the parent company of British Airways – says there are already plans to
create a facility to make aviation grade kerosene for use in their jet
airliners from domestic wastes. Even though the spot price of crude oil has now
dropped from 110 US dollars per barrel at the start of 2014 to around 85 US
dollars per barrel at present, the British Airways kerosene manufacturing plant
that will open around 2017 will still be cost competitive with crude oil
sourced aviation grade kerosene even if the spot price of crude oil falls to
around 50 US dollars per barrel.
Articles and news reports on IAG CEO Willie Walsh establishing a plant that converts Britain's domestic wastes into aviation grade kerosene had been around since 2010 and the British Airways' domestic wastes sourced aviation grade kerosene plant was slated to be operational this year - in 2014. But it seems that the latest Willie Walsh press conference had moved the date to 2017.
ReplyDeleteAt least Britain's domestic wastes will now serve a "noble purpose" of being turned into aviation grade kerosene that will eventually be powering up British Airways' planes rather than winding up an ignoble end in some nondescript EU approved landfill.
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