Airbus plans joint research on algae biofuel

Algae may someday become a part of the jet set. The pond plant is getting a boost from a joint biofuel effort announced yesterday that involves some marquee names in the aviation industry -- Airbus and JetBlue Airways -- along with International Aero Engines, Honeywell Aerospace and a second Honeywell company called UOP.

The group plans to study ways to make commercial aviation fuels out of so-called second-generation feedstocks such as algae. Success with algae would be a salve for biofuel boosters who are feeling the sting of a backlash against early hype.

Hailed just a few years ago as a potentially quick and easy alternative to petroleum-based products, biofuels derived from common agricultural sources such as corn, soybeans and palm oil now carry some heavy baggage, including a role in increased food prices and deforestation. Algae as a fast-growing fuel source -- and a gobbler of carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas -- is a notion that's been catching on with a number of start-ups and academic researchers.

But for the moment, biofuel from algae remains an experiment in progress, expensive to produce and still entangled in a number of technical challenges.

That's where the backing of established and heavyweight manufacturers like Honeywell and Airbus could make a difference. Honeywell says that its UOP subsidiary, a specialist in refining technology, has been working for some time in a DARPA-funded project to convert natural oils and grease into military jet fuel and has commercialised a process for producing 'green diesel' from biofeedstocks.

Earlier this year, biodiesel got off the ground in a Virgin Atlantic Airways flight from London to Amsterdam -- a first, said Virgin, though it acknowledged that only 20 per cent of the fuel burned came from plant sources, with the other 80 per cent being standard kerosene-based jet fuel.