Thanks for posting this, Treehugger. Though, I was surprised that the "urban woody green waste, such as yard clippings" are made into "Synthetic Diesel" instead of biodiesel. Wikipedia helps define the two - basically, it's a process difference. Synthetic diesel is made using non-oil, organic mater using a gasification technique and the Fischer-Tropsch process and biodiesel (starts from bio-oil) follows the transesterfication process.
8 US Airlines to Use Synthetic Diesel Made from Plant Waste
by Brian Merchant, Brooklyn, New York on 08.18.09
Photo via CDN
Good news for alternative fuel fans--eight major US airlines have just signed a deal to use 1.5 million gallons of synthetic diesel made from plant waste.
The synthetic diesel will be used for ground-service transportation at LAX, starting in 2012. According to Greenwire, the fuel, made by Rentech Inc, will "be made primarily from urban woody green waste such as yard clippings." Rentech will evidently begin mass producing the fuel at a plant in California to satisfy the demand.
Greenwire continues:
The Air Transport Association of America, the domestic industry trade group that joined Rentech in announcing the deal, called the purchasing agreement the first of its kind and said it could signal an industrywide move toward using lower-carbon fuels.This could indeed prove to be a good segue to adding synthetic jet fuels to the airlines' fuel diets as well--a product that Rentech also manufactures.
So who's buying the green fuels? Anybody who's anybody in the US airline industry it seems, despite a glaring omission or two (no Jet Blue?). Here's the list:
Using the renewable fuel will be American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, US Airways, Southwest Airlines, Alaska Airlines and UPS Airlines.Anyhow, a small step in the right direction here.
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