Greg and April wrote: >The short answer is no. > >
The short answer is _yes_. Baylor University did some testing with B20 in their Beech King Air 90, and found that it did just fine. The report was available at the biodiesel.org website for a while, but I can't find it just now. A Google search of the site produced this: http://www.biodiesel.org/resources/reportsdatabase/reports/gen/19981001_gen-106.pdf Purdue University also did some testing on aviation fuel, and the report is available here: http://www.biodiesel.org/resources/reportsdatabase/reports/gen/19950601_gen-144.pdf Keep in mind, turbines are, almost by definition, multifuel engines. As long as it doesn't overheat their burn units turbines don't care what they're running on. You should see the list of alternate fuels for the OH-58 scout helicopters I flew in the Army! >The long answer is, BioDiesel does not have to BTU's of jet fuel > No, it doesn't have the specific heat of jet fuel, but it's close enough that it makes little difference operationally. >( jet fuel >is a highly refined cozen to jet fuel with allot of BTU's per gal ), > Did you by any chance mean "kerosene"? Jet-A is high grade kerosene. Keep in mind, kerosene comes in many flavors, and jet fuel is only one of them. >nor >does it have the ability to take the low temperatures that jet fuel would >encounter at altitude. > > This could be taken care of with a properly effective antigel agent. >These things are workable, but, then you have to carry more fuel, and less >cargo, and heated fuel tanks and fuel lines. This adds weight and costs >to every aircraft, that is unacceptable. > Many aircraft already have fuel heaters in their fuel lines to prevent fuel icing. The real problem is to prevent the fuel gelling in the tanks. Some heat already gets into the fuel tanks in many airliners because they use the fuel tanks as a heat sink for the airconditioning systems. I think only a good antigel agent would solve this completely, though. >Jet travel is also one of the >least efficient forms of transportation there is. > That depends on how you look at it. If you consider it in terms of passenger seat miles per gallon then it comes out around 24mpg, IIRC, which beats most SUV's. I did have a link to an article which went into this much more in depth, but I have lost it. Don't forget, in the airline industry fuel efficiency means profits. >Using biodiesel would >only make it more inefficient. > > Maybe. But at least it would be using less petroleum. AP _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
