Technology:
Jet fuel can be produced
only in the purification process of crude oil at a constant rate, though it
will be in greater demand with the spread of jet travel. Its price has been increasing
since 2000 at 12% annually on average to about 100 yen per liter today. Because
the number of aircraft will supposedly double to 35,000 planes in 20 years, it
is urgent to develop a technology to produce less expensive of jet fuel.
Currently, it is allowed to add biofuel to jet fuel up to 50%. Corns and
sugarcanes are used to produce biofuel, but they are subject market
fluctuations.
Algae are supposed
to be hard to culture in large amounts. However, IHI developed a technology to
mass produce alga-based biofuel for up to 50% of the volume of algae by utilizing
its plant technology. The company has already succeeded in reducing the
production cost of algae-based biofuel to 500 yen per liter, half of the cost
to produce standard biofuel made of plant seeds. In order to reduce the production
cost to 100 yen per liter, the company plans to build a plant in Southeast Asia
or Australia
to make the best use of long hours of sunlight vital to the photosynthesis of
algae. Because fuel cost accounts for 40% of the operation cost of airlines,
lower jet fuel helps them to improve profits. U.S. ventures take the lead in
research and development of biofuel, but none of them established the
technology for the mass production of biofuel.
No comments:
Post a Comment