The company also develops Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) from the remaining waste but said "there is little opportunity to sell this material in the UK" .
In the quest to tap new sources of renewable energy, scientists are turning to the sun, to the wind, and of course, to a variety of bio-derived fuel alternatives.
Flight AC991 from Toronto to Mexico City is expected to generate at least 40 per cent fewer emissions by using jet fuel derived from recycled cooking oil and through other fuel-saving measures, making it the most environmentally-friendly flight ever flown by Air Canada.
ENGADGET: Air Canada embarks on its first biofuel-powered flight from Toronto to Mexico City
Earlier this week, Honda produced the first commercial hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, which will rely on natural gas-derived hydrogen for fuel and will be leased for use in Los Angeles.
The reason: Hydrogen engines can run on fuel derived from natural gas more cheaply than other currently available feedstocks.
Earlier this year, Whole Foods ( WFMI) became the first Fortune 500 company to announce it would attempt to reduce its consumption of fuel derived from the oil sands.
The worst offenders are palm oils, which may have ten times the carbon emissions of normal diesel fuel derived from petroleum if the palm is grown on converted rainforest land.
FORBES: Land Use Changes Are Main Factor In Carbon Emissions From Biofuels
But the shift towards synthetic fuel has provoked criticism, because when such fuel is made from coal and then burned in an aircraft engine, more greenhouse gases are emitted overall than would be produced if the aircraft simply burned conventional fuel derived from oil.
This nitrogen also bears the isotopic fingerprint of nitrogen derived through the inorganic processes of fertiliser manufacture and fossil fuel burning, and not of the way microbes do it.
These natural oils and biomaterials are tailored not only for fuel production, but also as replacements for fossil-derived petroleum and a variety of natural plant oils and compounds, making them useful in a wide range of products: from oleochemicals, to cosmetics, to foods.
So, a hydrogen fuel-cell car even running ... on hydrogen derived from natural gas cuts that carbon emission by 60%.
Oxygen could be derived from ilmanite reserves there and water could be extracted to make rocket fuel or sustain life on a base.
Certainly, greenhouse gas emissions are not the only consideration to be borne in mind in choosing a particular biofuel, and there is the matter of production-costs and the feasibility of making the fuel on the large scale, if any significant substitution for petroleum-derived fuels is to prove practical.
FORBES: Land Use Changes Are Main Factor In Carbon Emissions From Biofuels
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