Jet flies on cooking oil
December 1, 2007
Posted in Transport
An unmodified jet has made history by flying for 37 minutes and to height of 5,000m using only canola oil refined into biodiesel as fuel, Scientific American reports.
The 1968 L-29 Czechoslovakian is one of the few planes capable of burning biodiesel at present because it has a built-in fuel warming system, the reports says. Biodiesel can gel at cooler temperatures.
The report said that Doug Rodante, president of Green Flight International, the US company that tested the fuel for the biodiesel flight, did not think that 100-percent biofuel was the answer, but he added that a 20 percent jet fuel-biofuel mix could be implemented “with no modifications in other aircraftâ€.
Adding 20 percent biodiesel to the jet fuel mix could reduce carbon emissions by 50 percent, a physicist who worked on the project said.
Read the full story on Scientific American
Make a greener gadget choice
December 1, 2007
Posted in Lifestyle
It’s that time of year again. With Christmas just around the corner most of us will find ourselves down at the local mall some time in the next two weeks spending our annual bonuses on shiny new electronics. Whether it’s a games console for the kids (and dad), a laptop or a mobile phone you can try and make your holiday splurge a little greener by reading the sixth edition of Greenpeace’s Guide to Greener Electronics. And once you’ve done that, you may actually want to reconsider that games console you’ve been hankering after.
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