Solar Impulse completes 24-hour flight

From the Guardian

"An experimental solar-powered plane landed safely today after completing its first 24-hour test flight, proving that the aircraft can collect enough energy from the sun during the day to stay aloft all night.

Pilot André Borschberg eased the Solar Impulse aircraft on to the runway at Payerne airfield, about 31 miles south-west of the Swiss capital, Berne, at 9am local time today..."

World's First Solar-Powered Blimp Set to Cross the English Channel

"Can a blimp propelled entirely by solar power cross the English Channel? We’re about to find out! Nephelios, the world’s first solar blimp, was built by Projet Sol’r — a collaboration between students at engineering and technical schools in France. Now, almost a year after its debut (and a year after it was supposed to launch), the helium-filled airship is ready for action — its inaugural flight is set to take place as soon as next week..."

US Navy hires kite-assisted ship

Earlier in the year i wrote an article on alternative propulsion methods for ships including kite-assisted propulsion where wind is used to pull a ship along using a computer optimised kite. Now MV Beluga SkySails has been hired by a rather notable customer, the US Navy's Military Sealift Command. The ship will carry military equipment from Europe to the USA. Considering the USN use a lot of ships and shift a lot of freight if the SkySails concept can reduce fuel costs by 20 to 30% as they claim then it could be a considerable fuel saving.

BA & RR on alternative air fuels

British Airways and Rolls Royce are working together on alternative fuels for air use (like everyone seems to be these days) and interestingly RR are rather down on non-sustainable biofuels. They want a fuel made from biomass that doesn't compete with food production and say that current biofuels don't cut it yetas they only work down to -5C. Testing of up to 4 alternative fuels will be carried out on a ground rigged RB211.

Supersonic synfuel and fuel cells

The US Air Force are moving into alternative jet fuel in a big way, indeed they want all of their aircraft to be certified to be able to use a 50:50 blend of synthetic and normal jet fuel by 2011. The B-52 and C-17 has already flown using this blend and the next step is the B-1 bomber which will soon make the first supersonic flight using the blend. The F-15 is also being tested.

The synthetic fuel is a gas to liquid fuel made by Shell, though in the longer term (i.e. 2016) the USAF want to use a coal derived synthetic fuel.

Boeing have also demonstrated a small motor-glider which was modified to fly under a combination of fuel cells and an lithium-ion battery. The battery was used to boost power at take off and landing though the motor-glider flew on fuel cell alone on level flight. Using fuel cells reduced emissions across the board (CO2, infrared and noise) though is expected to be used more for unmanned aircraft.

Solar powered carbon dioxide derived fuel

The search goes on for alternative sources of fuel once the "oil runs out" (mind you there have been some recent big finds off the coast of Brazil showing that oil might be around for awhile yet). Now this latest alternative sounds like a wet dream : using solar power to turn carbon dioxide into fuel!

US government Sandia scientists have developed what they call the Counter Rotating Ring Receiver Reactor Recuperator (CR5). This uses sunlight to turn CO2 into carbon monoxide. This is then mixed with water to produce hydrogen and CO2, and that CO2 is in turn converted back into carbon monoxide. This is then mixed with the hydrogen to create syngas. This can then be converted into a heavy paraffin wax which can then be refined into fuel using conventional refinery methods. There you go, easy.

This process is said to be "a good 15 to 20 years away from being on the market".

References :

"Jet fuel from solar-powered carbon disassociation process possible, say scientists" - Flight International
"'Huge' gas field found off Brazil" - BBC News