View Full Version : Alternative fuel source
Perhaps it is time that we work on alternative fuel sources for jet engines.
Reduce the price and therefor lower ticket prices to get more pax in the planes. Otherwise I fear for the industry and our future jobs.
Has anyone heard of alternatives?.....will the oil companies allow this...will George W allow this.
What is being done??
Maybe the imminent death of UAL will make the industry search for alternatives.
I'm just grasping because I am sick of being out of work...thanks 9/11
Cheers
Notso Fantastic
2nd Dec 2002, 22:17
Perhaps this would be better in Questions? We're living in a real world, not fairy tale land of cheap energy for all! Oil is cheap enough, it does come out of the ground! Maybe we should be looking at tax aspects of energy. So, for the generation or so it would take to develop new types of energy for aeroplanes, let's stick to Reporting Points being about NEWS, and leave discussions for other places!
(Registered Dec 99 and first post Dec 2002?)
zerozero
3rd Dec 2002, 05:00
I would rather the oil companies dump their money into research than exploration...
...but there's no money in research I suppose. Unless they were able to hold a patent.
Anyway. One day we'll be forced to an alternative and I'm afraid by then it'll be too little too late.
smoke me 2 kippers
3rd Dec 2002, 12:46
trials done a few years back on moonshine meth fuels in a British built Triumph sportscar showed excellent potential for performance/economy/emissions.....however, the annual requirement for autogas in the US would exceed the entire worlds' production of the wheat used to produce the fuel.
PS It is said that the dialy requirement of electricity for New York computer monitors is in excess of the entire electrical requirements for Sierra Leone PER YEAR.
It is more a problem with how we use the energy than where it comes from. (?)
Mark 1
4th Dec 2002, 12:18
Its relatively simple to re-design a gas turbine for any combustible fluid fuel. I believe even fluidised coal dust has been demonstrated (not practically though).
It would also be relatively easy to make 'bio-' jet fuel in much the same way as bio-diesel fuel is already being made (re-cycled chip fat etc.).
I think the obstacles are more economic than technical and are likely to remain so until fossil fuels start to run out.
Lu Zuckerman
4th Dec 2002, 13:18
To: Mark 1
Its relatively simple to re-design a gas turbine for any combustible fluid fuel. I believe even fluidised coal dust has been demonstrated (not practically though).
The DD-963 class destroyers use gas turbines that were built for 747s and modified to run on bunker C oil that is extremely viscous. I was involved in the design but have no experience as to how the engines perform and if the maintenance rate is higher for the same engine on the 747.
In any case the oil came out of the ground which the original poster proposed should be replaced with an alternative fuel.
:cool: