Aviation is stepping into a new era with biofuels

Airlines are reducing their carbon footprint with sustainable sources of energy. Also, retired journalists are giving back to their communities and a motorcycle ride stirs the heart.

Welcome to Zanepost.

Thanks for being a reader. I feel this connection on Substack is more authentic than scrolling on social media, so I greatly appreciate our connection on this page and your willingness to look beyond the superficial.

As always, please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions. I’d like this to be a place for sharing ideas.

-Renato.

Sustainable aviation fuels are here

Aircraft refuelling (courtesy Jelson25, Creative Commons)

According to recent estimates, flying contributes about 2.5% of total global carbon dioxide emissions. In terms of overall impact on global warming, however, scientists believe that aviation accounts for a little more, about 3.5% of the total increase. This is significant for the planet because some aviation emissions are not counted in international climate change protocols.

Last week I mentioned the positive environmental impact anticipated by the introduction of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). These are alternatives to the fossil-derived kerosene, which is the basis of most jet fuel. The newer SAFs are made from 100% renewable waste and residue raw materials. Examples of these include used cooking oil and animal fat waste.

Currently, most of these "greener" fuels are blended with jet fuel, but that will change soon. Aircraft manufacturer Boeing, for example, has committed "to deliver commercial airplanes capable and certified to fly on 100% SAF by 2030." Planes flying on 100% biofuels are already being tested.

SAF reduces emissions of carbon dioxide by 80% and has great potential to decarbonize aviation by 2050.

As of April of last year, 450,000 commercial flights were completed with planes using SAF, and over 50 airlines were using it. By 2025, the number of commercial flights with SAF is expected to grow to 2 million. Today biofuels are being used by Lufthansa, KLM, American Airlines and Alaska Airlines; plus cargo operators like UPS and Amazon PrimeAir, to name just a few.

While the price of SAF is currently higher than kerosene, it is expected to come down as more ways are developed to produce it. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), there are currently seven ways to produce SAF. That number is expected to grow to 11 in two years' time.

In addition to waste oil and fats, SAF can be produced from municipal waste and non-food crops. It can also be produced synthetically via a process that captures carbon directly from the air.

Iberia Spanish Airlines biofuel aircraft (courtesy Curimedia, Creative Commons)

Why carbon neutrality matters

If we hope to manage global warming, the immediate goal is carbon neutrality. Here's why: carbon in nature is already recycled by plants (through photosynthesis), animals (respiration and waste) and oceans, which naturally exchange carbon with the air above them. It's a complex system that works well on its own. This is considered a short-term cycle. In the last 150 years, however, we have created a problem through industrialization: human activity has added so called long-term carbons into the environment. These carbons used to lie buried underground, where they sat dormant or changed only slightly over eons. We have pulled them to the surface to fuel our development. These are fossil fuels like oil, coal and natural gas. Bringing them above ground for conversion into energy and for the manufacturing of products has upset the natural carbon cycle. We have been adding these long-term carbons into the short-term cycle, creating an abundance of carbon dioxide emissions in our atmosphere that nature alone cannot process. The result is global warming.

This is why the latest moves to renewable fuel sources are so promising. It means focusing on the above-ground cycle and not adding any more carbon dioxide than is already in the atmosphere. In addition to aviation, various other groups are also looking at introducing biofuels for land transportation. Together with the push for electrification, this should help our climate efforts, provided overall energy production is modified without harming nature in unintended ways. Focusing more on supporting the natural short-term carbon cycle will buy us time to solve some of our long term challenges for the environment.

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More info on Sustainable Aviation Fuel: https://bit.ly/43av9pd

Renewable carbon cycles: https://bit.ly/3ZITcZC

Boeing purchases more SAF: https://bit.ly/3nNJxDF

Retired journalists step into the void

Photo by Alejandro Escamilla on Unsplash

I was heartened to learn this week that some retired journalists have decided to give back to their communities by volunteering their talents.

It’s clear we need reliable information at every level of society (municipal, regional and national). In recent years, thousands of journalists and editors have been laid off due to the financial crisis in the media industry or have retired. Many independent newspapers across the world have been forced to close. This has left an information vacuum that has not been adequately replaced by the Internet, which we know is driven by different goals. As a former journalist myself, it has been painful to see good reporting being replaced by poor information; and in some cases, by a corresponding weakening of the institutions that make our societies function.

An article in Nieman Reports, a magazine that covers journalism, drew my attention. This excerpt gives the sense of the story:

"Rather than moving to retirement communities and settling in beside the pool or playing pickleball, retired journalists are stepping into news voids nationwide, launching local and regional media outlets or serving on their boards, mentoring young journalists, advocating for press freedoms, and continuing to gather and report information not otherwise being covered. In some cases, they’re returning to their roots in local news, spending their retirements reviving the kinds of local newspapers and news sites that have been particularly hard hit by the consolidation of the industry by big media companies and hedge funds."

I’d like to cheer these journalists who are showing this kind of leadership in their communities. Many are doing this work for no pay.

“We’re the same people who as kids drove our parents crazy by constantly asking them ‘Why?’” says [Tom] Fiedler, who is 77, “It’s both that sense of wonder and questioning and demanding to know answers. You don’t just shed that when you qualify for Social Security.”

If you'd like to read the full article, it's here: https://bit.ly/3miWOUe

One reason why Western democracies may have an identity problem

Andrew Potter wrote an engaging piece this week for

The Line

here on Substack, exploring the possible reasons for the apparent funk affecting Western liberal democracies today. Potter is a journalist and academic. He argues that a lot of our problems, like polarization, loss of faith in institutions, the sense of anxiety and despair, especially among the young, are partially caused by a loss of "social capital." In other words, we have lost our real sense of community and civic engagement. We need to get it back. (And social media is not the path.)

Andrew Potter: What's eating liberal democracy?

Sharing an experience: a night ride

A faint silvery sheen from the moon penetrates the overcast skies. I push back the side stand of my motorcycle, put the engine into gear and leave the Shell service station, accelerating on the ramp to the Trans-Canada Highway. I'm in Langley, British Columbia, heading home to Vancouver.

Earlier it had been blustery, but now, after 8 PM, the wind has died down. So has the traffic, and the highway is clear. With no trucks and construction slowdowns, riding a motorcycle in these conditions feels safer. A pleasant ease settles in my mind as I focus on the route, a distance of about fifty kilometres. It's March 30th. I'm wearing the right layers, so cold temperatures at freeway speed are not a factor tonight.

I rode to Langley in the late afternoon to attend a reception celebrating BMW Motorrad's one hundredth anniversary as a company building bikes. I don't own a BMW motorcycle, but I enjoy being part of the community, ogling new models and meeting people at these events.

Reception and talk at High Road BMW

The famous GS model line

Heading west, I’m travelling at about the speed limit and it’s comfortable. The most enjoyable aspect of this section of the Trans-Canada Highway is the crossing of the Fraser River at the Port Mann Bridge, a wide, cable-stayed span connecting the city of Surrey, on the south side of the river, to Coquitlam on the north side. It's an impressive engineering marvel, carrying ten lanes of traffic. The road surface is more than 40 meters above the river.

Port Mann bridge (courtesy Dgarte, Wikimedia Commons)

Just before getting on the bridge the road dips downhill as it leaves Surrey and then rises slightly on the bridge itself before dropping down again on the other side.

By day the eye is captivated by the mountains in the distance. At night the long cables rising high from the deck are illuminated with lights and they become a focal point, like a kind of art installation. The river reflects some of the light from the sky and from the riverbank, where lumber mills and other industries hug the water.

Across the bridge the hills of Coquitlam rise into view, the lights from the houses looking like a constellation of yellow stars, the bigger North Shore mountains rising as shadows in the distance, clearly outlined across the dark sky.

My mind takes this in and slips to another place and another time. The view reminds me of a vacation drive in a rental car on a hot night in early July, when we arrived in San Diego in darkness after a long stretch from Yuma, Arizona, skirting the Mexican border. Approaching the city along Interstate 8, we meandered through several valleys, past Glenview, La Mesa and into Mission Hills, all twinkling with lights from the homes built on the slopes near the highway.

Both experiences, then and now, feel slightly unreal, like some kind of LaLa Land or theme park, too distant from one's daily experiences, but definitely happening. The hills look as if they’ve been decorated by a giant hand, like the make-believe world next to the tracks of a model train set or an elaborate nativity scene set in the hills of Nazareth. I feel like a miniature person passing through that kind of landscape.

On the motorcycle, the wind drowns out most of the engine sound. You feel the cool air on your skin, even if it’s covered. As I cross over onto the north shore of the river, the yellow lights on the hills are replaced by the white LEDs of the industrial and retail district along the highway. I pass the large IKEA store on the right, with its wide parking lot and familiar yellow-and-blue sign. On the left, the floodlights of the EagleQuest golf driving range draw your eyes to multi-storey tee positions, tiny metal shafts reflecting from the upper levels as people drive balls into the night. A bit later, approaching my turnoff at Grandview, the pink lights of the Grand Villa Casino and Conference Centre, also next to the highway, are a reminder that my ride is almost over.

As I enter the city, the noise from the wind abates and is replaced by the quiet of the streets at this time of night. I notice the aromas from fast-food restaurants along the way. Rush hour is long past and the slower speeds from stoplight to stoplight are relaxing, giving me a chance to look around as we wait for the greens.

The rest of the way home, I follow a few cars in a serene procession. Tonight all is right with the world.

My Kawasaki Versys-X 300

Thanks for reading. Have a wonderful week!

-Renato