Tagged With "ASTM"

Alaska Airlines is signed up to become the first to use Gevo Inc.s alcohol-based jet fuel as soon as it completes testing and certification. The hope is to be able to reduce pollution, reduce swings in fuel price, and have a steady, domestic source of...

I've always been skeptical of using alcohol based fuels simply because it takes grains out of the food chain and drives up the global price for things like corn. Those who suffer live in poor countries, and are those who can least afford it. I do think it's a great idea to use products like old cooking oil. Someone I know has converted a VW bug (diesel) to burn old cooking oil. He has worked out a deal with a local fast food place wherein he relieves them of their old cooking oil and he gets...

Good point on the grain situation, and I agree. However, that's not what's involved here! The ethanol we're familiar with as a gasoline additive is a grain/corn-based product, and does indeed impact food prices—at home as well as in the developing countries. But the Gevo project is producing isobutanol, a different alcohol. It is produced by cyanobacteria, not from grain. Genetic engineering of the bacteria has enabled it to produce the compound on a much greater scale, and on non-arable...