Biofuel for Jets Totally Cuts the Mustard

Carbon emission reduction in the air travel industry could possibly be achieved with the help of a common weed.

A biofuel made from camelina -- a type of mustard plant, originally from Europe, but which has flourished in the northern plains states of the U.S. -- imparts a dramatically reduced carbon footprint compared to its petroleum counterpart.

The entire lifecycle of the manufacture of this substitute fuel, beginning with planting, to harvest and processing, through combustion, results in an 84 percent decrease in carbon emissions according to chemical engineering professor David Shonnard.

The plant needs little water and added nitrogen to flourish, and camelina is not a crop that competes with our need to use food for, well, actual food, as we encounter in the corn-to-biofuel process.

The oil made from camelina is completely compatible with existing infrastructure and equipment, and in terms of performance in flight testing has been deemed just as good if not modestly superior to petroleum based jet fuel.

Of course, the matter of scale presents an initial obstacle. Farmers would need to be convinced of the plant's viability as a crop, investment would need to go into facilities capable of refining the camelina into usable quantities of fuel.

But it's exceptionally encouraging to see a new development in biofuels that does not involve diverting biomass away from the food supply, and one that also, in terms of performance, totally cuts the mustard.