“Greener Aviation” Technologies and Alternative Fuels Head AIAA List of Top 10 Emerging Aerospace Technologies

June 10, 2009 at 12:43 pm

(Source: Green Car Congress)

Image: via Apture

Off late, there is a big push within the Aviation industry towards a “greener future.”   More airlines are starting to test technologies and tweak approaches (such as use of biofuels) to attract the environmentally-conscious consumer. According to 700-page Stern Report on the economics of climate change, CO2 emissions from aviation are about 600-700 megatonnes per year, or about 2-3% of total global CO2 emissions.   Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s Director General and CEO, in his State of the Industry address at the 65th IATA Annual General Meeting and World Air Transport Summit in Kuala Lumpur said the international airline industry is committed to achieving carbon-neutral growth by 2020.

Amdist all the buzz and fervor building up around the greening of aviation, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA),  the world’s largest technical society dedicated to the global aerospace profession, with more than 35,000 individual members worldwide, and 90 corporate members, has released its first annual list of top emerging aerospace technologies.  Developed by AIAA’s Emerging Technologies Committee (ETC), the 2009 list comprises the following:

  1. “Greener Aviation” Technologies, including emission reduction and noise reduction technologies as usedin the Federal Aviation Administration’s Continuous Low Emissions, Energy and Noise (CLEEN) program, and the European Environmentally Friendly Engine (EFE) program and “Clean Sky” Joint Technology Initiative.
  2. Alternative Fuels, including biofuels, as promoted by the FAA’s Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI), and the recent FAA grant to the X Prize Foundation to spur development of renewable aviation fuels and technologies.
  3. High Speed Flight Technologies, such as supersonic and hypersonic aerodynamics, sonic boom reduction technology, and thermal management aids.
  4. Efficient Propulsion Technologies, including open rotors and geared turbofans, such as those used in the European DREAM (valiDation Radical Engine Architecture systeMs) program.
  5. Active Flow Technologies, such as plasma actuators.
  6. Advanced Materials, such as nanotechnology and composites.
  7. Active Structures, such as shape memory alloys, morphing, and flapping.
  8. Health Management, such as monitoring, prognostics, and self-healing.
  9. Remote Sensing Technologies, including unmanned aerial vehicles and satellites such as those used inNASA’s Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) program.
  10. Advanced Space Propulsion Technologies, including plasma-based propulsion such as the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket, and solar sail technologies.

AIAA’s list reflects the expertise of the members of the Emerging Technologies Committee, as well as the results of a specially commissioned study. The ETC is composed of three technical subcommittees: Aviation, Space, and Multidisciplinary and System Technologies.  ETC chair Dan Jensen stated, “The list provides guidance to AIAA for its institute development strategy, while helping shape the annual input AIAA provides to the United States Air Force Scientific Advisory Board. The technologies listed represent the aerospace technologies in which research and technology development is most active from a global perspective.”

Have interesting ideas for solving the traffic congestion problem? ITS Congestion Challenge gives $50,000 for the best idea

June 10, 2009 at 11:08 am

The Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America), in partnership with IBM and Spencer Trask Collaborative Innovations (STCI), has launched a global challenge to identify innovative ideas for combating transportation congestion.

“The average metropolitan commuter in the U.S. spends nearly a full work week stuck in traffic each year, wasting precious time and fuel and impacting the environment, safety conditions on roads, and economic productivity to the tune of more than 1 percent of GDP,” said ITS America President and CEO Scott Belcher. “Allowing congestion to grind cities, suburbs and supply chains to a halt every morning and afternoon is unacceptable when we have innovative tools, technologies, and strategies available to manage our transportation systems and utilize our infrastructure more effectively.”

The ITS Congestion Challenge is a global competition to identify the best and most creative ideas to effectively reduce congestion and its impacts on the economy, environment, and quality of life.

The competition is open to entrepreneurs, commuters, transportation experts, researchers, universities, and citizens from all fields around the globe. All ideas will be reviewed discussed and rated by an open global community, to determine the best and most creative ideas to effectively solve the consequences of traffic congestion.

The winner will be announced during the 16th World Congress on Intelligent Transportation Systems in Stockholm, Sweden, September 21 – 25, 2009, and will receive a cash investment of $50,000 USD, as well as development and implementation support to pursue turning the ideas into real-world solutions.

More information is available on the competition including key attributes winning entries will be expected to incorporate. Participants will be able to post solutions, collaborate in an open community to improve solution entries, and ultimately vote for those solutions they believe best relieve the issues caused by congestion.

American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami will test NextGen’s efficiency promises –

June 9, 2009 at 3:12 pm

(Source:  Flight Global)

American Airlines plans to fly a more precise altitude on an 11 June flight as part of the launch of testing to prove efficiencies of aircraft equipped with avionics to support next generation (NextGen) air traffic control modernization.

The flight operated by American from Charles De Gaulle to Miami is designed to showcase route optimization as the carrier plans to operate within a special envelope clear of other aircraft.

On the flight American plans to use single engine taxi on departure and arrival, continuous climb out and descent, optimised routing and a tailored arrival.

For the optimised routing over water American will fly a more precise altitude of 32,400ft, for example, rather than being confined to a normal altitude of 32,000ft or 33,000ft, says American Boeing 777/737 programme manager Brian Will.

Once the weight burns down the Boeing 767 can climb another 1,000-2,000ft. But instead of using an increase in engine power for that climb, the 767 climbs in 100-200ft increments without a push in power, which reduces fuel burn and carbon emissions, Will explains.

American is spending about $2.2 million per aircraft for its future air navigation system (fans) upgrade that includes a global positioning update to the flight management system and changes to the flight management computer that allow for the automatic downlink of an aircraft’s position through controller pilot datalink communication. Fourteen of the carrier’s 767s have been upgraded with the system.

In addition to the demonstration flight, American is also conducting two months of testing during June and July on its 777s used on flights from London Heathrow to Miami mainly focusing on the oceanic optimisation and tailored arrivals. The carrier also plans to add 777-operated flights from Madrid to Miami to the testing later this month.

Click here to read the entire article.

International Benefits, Evaluation and Costs (IBEC) Working Group Seminar: Road Pricing Beyond the Technology – September 20, 2009 @ Stockholm, Sweden

June 9, 2009 at 11:39 am

Road Pricing Beyond the Technology

Sunday 20 September, 2009 @ 9.00 – 17.00

Radisson SAS Royal Viking Hotel, Vasagatan 1 SE-101 24 Stockholm, Sweden

PRELIMINARY PROGRAMME

(As of 4 June, 2009; Subject to Change)

Road Pricing is an economic instrument that can be part of a package of measures to address overall mobility. This is not a seminar about the technology of road pricing but about strategic objectives, policy, monitoring, measuring and managing of road pricing schemes which are the core values of IBEC. Be prepared for frank discussions!

The benefits of pricing include the immediate traffic impacts but also the economic and social benefits that effective pricing can generate. Of course these benefits vary widely depending on the type and scale of pricing. Systems that provide a « guaranteed » level of service, such as those that involve some form of variable pricing should help business and individual travellers to solve a key transportation problem of the 21st Century – reliability. Then, there are the environmental concerns; to what extent does road pricing provide a useful contribution to greenhouse gas reduction? But, it’s all got to be implemented, and road pricing has a public image problem to address also.

Key Issues

● What are the economic benefits of road pricing and how can they be measured?

● Can road pricing provide large scale and long-term economic stimulus for a 21st Century economy?

● How should we inform and consult with stakeholders?

● What about social equity – do we understand the social distribution of costs and benefits?

● How should we manage politics and public expectations?

● Are HOT lanes a step in the right direction or a dangerous distraction?

● What have we learned from current efforts at implementation?

● Where have real benefits been delivered and what have we learned from the failures?

Time Schedule

9:00 Welcome

9:15 Session 1: What each region is doing in Road Pricing

This session will provide an international survey of Road Pricing policies and activities from around the world. More than being descriptive, each speaker will put developments into context by explaining transport objectives and how pricing is seen as a tool to address the transport challenges faced.

Chaired and coordinated by Alan Stevens, TRL, UK

10:45 Break

11:00 Session 2: Deployment challenges in relation to Stakeholders

Public acceptance is crucial for road pricing success. In this session, experts from the Road Pricing community will describe the challenges of informing and consulting stakeholders, particularly transport users, about the benefits of pricing.

Coordinated by Jane Lappin, Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, USA and Amy Ellen Polk, Citizant, Inc., USA

12:30 Buffet Lunch at the Fisk restaurant

13:15 Session 3: Evaluation challenges

This session will consist of presentations and discussion of Road Pricing deployment and evaluation challenges and how can these challenges be overcome. This will include a wide range of issues and all workshop attendees are invited to participate in the lively discussion that is anticipated.

Chaired and coordinated by Steve Morello, Egis Projects, France

14:45 Break

15:15 Session 4: Business case for society

This session will tackle the broad macro view of the economic and other benefits to society of road pricing and how we can tell if we are doing a “good job”.

Chaired by Kevin Borras, Thinking Highways, UK – Coordinated by Dick Mudge, Delcan, Inc., USA

16:45 Wrap-up

17:00 End of seminar

Registration Fee and Payment:

Fee: € 75 incl. taxes (approx. SEK 793 based on 5 May, 2009 exchange rates on www.xe.com).  It includes seminar materials, 3 coffee breaks and lunch at the venue restaurant.

For registration and other related event information, please contact:

Odile PIGNIER – Harmonised Events – Email: odile@harmonised-events.com

Tel: +33 (0)2 41 54 76 30 – Fax: +33 (0)2 85 52 00 08

Find more information @: www.ibec-its.org

The International Benefits, Evaluation and Costs (IBEC) Working Group is a cooperative working group set up to coordinate and expand international efforts, to exchange information and techniques, and evaluate benefits and costs of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). IBEC brings together the best knowledge and experience and is the focal point for discussion and debate of interest to the international ITS evaluation community. IBEC encourages more effective use of ITS evaluation information so that decision-makers can make more informed ITS investments.

Ready to get electrified at 150mph: Mission One Electric Motorcycle Hits the Track

June 9, 2009 at 10:27 am

(Source: Wired & You Tube)

Folks at Mission Motors are hard at work preparing for the upcoming TTxGP green motorcycle grand prix.  As they prepared their electric beauty, Mission One, for the D-Day they decided to take it out for a spin on the circuit and test its endurance and speed.   We are now thankful that the team decided to capture the events in a video and decided to share with us enthusiasts who are eagerly awaiting the products arrival in the market. The video provides some tantalizing glimpses of the bike’s mechanicals, and since Mission Motorsunveiled the bike in February, we know a little about what’s coming in the $69,000 street bike slated for production next year.

No one’s saying much about the Mission One’s specs before the June 12 race on the Isle of Man – Mission One doesn’t want to tip its hand – but they’ve always said the bike will be capable of 150 mph. They recently took the bike to Infineon Raceway north of San Francisco for some serious shakedown testing and walked away impressed.

“We were able to test extensively at speed as well as for endurance,” company founder and CEO Forrest North told Wired.com. “The bike responded amazingly in both areas. We were extremely impressed that right off the factory floor the Mission One could be ridden to the limits with very few tweaks. We’re excited to begin testing at the Isle of Man next week and put the bike through its paces on the mountain course.”

It has a 3-phase AC induction motor and a liquid-cooled lithium-ion battery. Mission Motors claims the battery is good for 150 miles and recharges in just two hours at 240 volts. Lustworthy hardware includes Ohlins suspension at both ends, four-piston Brembo brakes and Marchesini forged wheels. The components put the Mission One on par with hardcore sportbikes like the Ducati 1198.

The TTxGP will be a great place to prove the bike’s sporting cred. The inaugural event follows the Isle of Man TT, one of the most storied races in all of motorcycling. The 37.5-mile course may well be the ultimate test of a motorcycle’s handling, and running that hard for that long will show what’s possible – or what isn’t – with battery range.

Eighteen teams have signed up for the race. Mission Motors promises more video from the Isle of Man. Stay tuned.

Airline Industry Targeting Carbon-Neutral Growth By 2020

June 8, 2009 at 2:13 pm

(Source: Business Standard & Green Car Congress)

Image: REUTERS/Zainal Abd Halim via Boston Globe

The international airline industry is committed to achieving carbon-neutral growth by 2020, said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s Director General and CEO in his State of the Industry address at the 65th IATA Annual General Meeting and World Air Transport Summit in Kuala Lumpur.

Two years ago we set a vision to achieve carbon-neutral growth on the way to a carbon-free future. Today we have taken a major step forward by committing to a global cap on our emissions in 2020. After this date, aviation’s emissions will not grow even as demand increases. Airlines are the first global industry to make such a bold commitment.

—Giovanni Bisignani

The commitment to carbon-neutral growth completes a set of three sequential goals for air transport: (1) a 1.5% average annual improvement in fuel efficiency from 2009 to 2020; (2) carbon-neutral growth from 2020 and (3) a 50% absolute reduction in carbon emissions by 2050.

To achieve these goals, the air transport industry is focusing on a cross-industry four-pillar strategy on climate change consisting of improved technology; effective operations; efficient infrastructure; and positive economic measures.

In 2009 the carbon footprint of air transport is expected to shrink by 7%. Of this, 5% is due to the recession and 2% is directly related to efficiency gains.

Bisignani said a cross industry four-pillar strategy on climate change focused on improved technology, effective operations, efficient infrastructure and positive economic measures was delivering results noting that in 2009 the carbon footprint of air transport was expected to shrink by 7 per cent.

Bisignani attributed 5 per cent to the recession and 2 per cent to efficiency gains from IATA’s four-pillar strategy.

“No other industry is as united and no other industry can point to such good results and progress,” Bisignani claimed.  He noted that the airlines’ commitment needed to be matched by governments. “We are ambitious, but our success will be contingent on governments acting effectively.”

“International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) must set binding carbon emissions standards on manufacturers for new aircraft. A legal and fiscal framework to support the availability of sustainable biofuels must be established.

“Governments must work with air navigation service providers to push forward major infrastructure projects such as a Single European Sky, NextGen in the US or fixing the Pearl River Delta in China,” Bisignani added.

Airline losses worldwide may total $9 billion in 2009, nearly double a previous forecast

June 8, 2009 at 10:33 am

(Source:  Time)

The International Air Transport Association (IATA), which represents 230 airlines worldwide, increased its loss estimate from the $4.7 billion it forecast in March, reflecting a “rapidly deteriorating revenue environment.”

Although there has been growing signs of a bottoming out of the recession, IATA said the industry was severely hit in the first quarter with 50 major airlines reporting losses of more than $3 billion. Weak consumer confidence, high business inventories and rising oil prices pose headwinds for future recovery, the association said during a two-day global aviation conference in Kuala Lumpur.

Revenues are expected to decline by $80 billion — an unprecedented 15% from a year ago — to $448 billion this year, and the weakness will persist into 2010, it said.

“There is no modern precedent for today’s economic meltdown. The ground has shifted. Our industry has been shaken. This is the most difficult situation that the industry has faced,” said IATA Chief Executive Giovanni Bisignani. The Geneva-based association also revised its estimated loss for last year to $10.4 billion from $8.5 billion previously.

It said passenger traffic for 2009 is expected to contract by 8% from a year ago to 2.06 billion travelers. Cargo demand will decline by 17% and some 100,000 jobs worldwide are at risk, it said.

The association expects the industry fuel bill to shrink by $59 billion, or 36%, to $106 billion this year, accounting for 23% of operating costs with an average oil price of $56 a barrel. But crude oil prices have rallied in recent weeks, breaching the $70 a barrel level on Friday on hopes of economic recovery.

IATA said carriers in all regions were expected to report losses, with Asia-Pacific to be the hardest hit amid a sharp slowdown in its three key markets — Japan, China and India. The region’s carriers are expected to post losses of $3.3 billion, worse than the previous forecast of $1.7 billion but better than the $3.9 billion losses last year.

North American carriers are expected to lose $1 billion, far better than its $5.1 billion losses in 2008, thanks to early capacity cuts and limited hedging by U.S. airlines.

Click here to read the entire article.

U.S Department of Defense experiments with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for maritime counter-drug operations

June 8, 2009 at 10:02 am

(Source: Time)

Image Courtesy: USDoD SouthCom - Heron UAV takes off @ Compala Airbase

For weeks, U.S. and Salvadoran counter-narcotics officials had been watching a boat which they suspected was ferrying drugs to and from El Salvador’s Pacific coast. But to be sure, they needed a plane that could stay aloft over the ocean, undetected, long enough to get detailed surveillance imaging. So last month the Defense Department’s Southern Command (Southcom) suggested this would be a good opportunity to help determine whether an unmanned air vehicle (UAV) being tested at El Salvador’s Comalapa Air Base might be the future of drug interdiction.

The results were encouraging. The UAV, or drone — a wide-winged, blue-gray plane aptly called the Heron, which can stay quietly airborne for more than 20 hours and stream high-fidelity, real-time video from as high as 15,000 feet — provided officials back at Comalapa with enough to confirm that it was indeed a narco-ship (which will probably be busted soon). “This was a historic first,” says Navy Commander Kevin Quarderer of Southcom’s Innovation Program, “using a UAV for maritime counter-drug operations in a real-world setting, with actual targets.” (Read about how drones are used in Pakistan.)

Indeed, with drones playing an increasing role in U.S. military operations — some 7,000 are in use today, up from just around 100 in the year 2000 — it only stands to reason that drug drones would soon join America’s growing stealth arsenal. That’s especially true at a time when many in Congress are questioning the cost-effectiveness of a drug war (which has poured more than $5 billion in U.S. aid to Colombia alone this decade) that intercepts tons of narcotics each year but rarely seems to put appreciable dents in eradicating crops like coca, the raw material of cocaine, or reducing the flow of marijuana, coke, heroin and methamphetamines into the U.S. If battlefield drones like the Predator can scan and bomb Taliban targets in the mountains of Afghanistan, the logic goes, a similar drone like the Heron should be able to find the “go fast” boats and submarines used by drug cartels in the waters of this hemisphere.

Or, for that matter, clandestine drug-processing labs on land. Drug drones have recently become a more popular idea thanks in part to the five-year-long drama of three U.S. military contractors who were taken hostage by Marxist guerrillas when their drug surveillance Cessna crashed over the Colombian jungle in 2003. (The three were rescued along with 12 other hostages in a Colombian operation last year). Using drones could put far fewer agents in that kind of danger.

But for now, the military is focusing on maritime drug drones. A preliminary Southcom report to U.S. legislators like Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran, who led a push to get $3 million for Heron testing this year, suggests the drone is ready to take on actual interdiction work, which could result in major savings in drug-surveillance outlays for the federal government (though Southcom says it hasn’t calculated them yet). Cochran, the ranking Republican member on the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Defense Subcommittee, is convinced the Heron has “operational readiness and potential to provide more persistent and cost-effective intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance,” says the Senator’s spokesperson, Margaret McPhillips. (See pictures from the frontlines of Mexico’s drug war.)

A key reason is endurance. Manned counter-drug aircraft like the E-2 Hawkeye can only stay up about one- third of the time a drone can. And with drug cartels using harder-to-detect shipment methods like semisubmersibles (jerry-rigged submarines), it’s critical to have surveillance craft that can “perch and stare” for longer periods, says P.W. Singer, author of Wired For War and director of the 21st-Century Defense Initiative at the Brookings Institute in Washington, D.C. “Drones are best for the dull, dirty and dangerous jobs, so this is a smart move,” says Singer. “We can’t ask counter-drug crews to keep their eyes open for 20 hours over oceans and mangroves.”

The Heron isn’t without problems.  The Turkish military complained last month about mishaps with the drones it had bought from IAI for counterterrorism surveillance, such as too often not responding to commands from their human operators on the ground.  Quarderer insists the Heron used in the recent testing project — dubbed Monitoreo, Spanish for “monitoring” — was virtually problem-free and sported the kind of GPS and automatic takeoff and landing technology that enhances safety by minimizing the potential for human error. The only question now seems to be whether Congress will authorize a larger drug-drone fleet, either purchased and operated by the military or leased and contracted out to the aircraft’s makers. (Boeing’s A160 Hummingbird, a helicopter-like drone, is also being considered for overland counter-drug ops.) In the end, the cost savings Washington has found with drones in real war will be hard to resist in the drug war.

Click here to read the entire article.

Event Alert: 81st Annial AAAE Conference and Exposition — Jule 14-17 @ Philadelphia, PA

June 8, 2009 at 9:30 am

The 81st Annual AAAE Conference and Exposition is scheduled for June 14-17, 2009, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  This historic city will be our host for the best airport industry conference around.

The AAAE annual conference always attracts more than 2,500 airport and aviation professionals, including airport executives; airport and aviation suppliers and vendors; airline personnel, and representatives from FAA, TSA and DHS. Four days of discussions revolving around the current state of affairs of the airport industry will be supplemented by an exhibit hall with over 250 vendors ready to assist the industry in meeting its challenges with their products and services.  Don’t miss this once-a-year opportunity to meet with airport colleagues from around the country!

Tuesday, June 16, 10:30 a.m.
Fresh on the job after being sworn in June 1, 2009, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Transportation John Porcari will deliver his first address to an aviation industry group at the AAAE Annual Conference on Tuesday, June 16 at 10:30 am in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

PRE-REGISTRATION DEADLINE

All registrations received after Wednesday, June 10, 2009, will be considered on-site registrations and will be processed upon check-in during registration hours at the conference. Attendees who mail or fax in registrations and do not receive a faxed confirmation letter should bring a copy of their registration form and payment information with them. The May 15 deadline does not apply to listings in conference publications. Rosters will be printed and shipped several weeks in advance of the conference dates and cannot include listings for subsequent registrations. A final roster of attendees will be available after the conference concludes. For further information, contact Alexia Marquex at (703) 824-0500, Ext. 201, or e-mailalexia.marquez@aaae.org.

REGISTRATION/CANCELLATION POLICY
All registrations must be in writing. All cancellations must be received in writing on or before May 15 and will be refunded after the conference is over. Refund requests on or before May 15 are subject to a $150 processing fee; no-shows will be billed. There will be no refunds of any kind after May 15. This includes golf fees, spouse program and spouse tour fees.

Confirmation of registration will be e-mailed to conference attendees. If you have not received a confirmation letter via e-mail two business days prior to the meeting, and you enrolled at least 15 days prior to the meeting, please contact the AAAE Meetings Department at (703) 824-0504 or email aaaemeetings@aaae.org. Non-receipt of the confirmation letter before the meeting is notjustification for seeking a refund.

Attendee substitutions will be accepted. Photocopies of this form will be accepted. AAAE accepts registration regardless of race, religion, sex, physical disability and national or ethnic origin. This includes but is not limited to admissions, employment and educational services.

For more information about the event and other details, please visit the conference website:  https://www.aaae.org/meetings/annual2009/index.cfm

One litre of biodiesel costs 14,000 litres of water

June 6, 2009 at 2:53 pm

(Source: Greenbang, Alpha Galileo & Green Car Congress)

Data: Gerbens-Leenes et al via Green Car Congress

The ‘water footprint’ of bioenergy, i.e. the amount of water required to cultivate crops for biomass, is much greater than for other forms of energy. The generation of bioelectricity is significantly more water-efficient in the end, however – by a factor of two – than the production of biofuel. By establishing the water footprint for thirteen crops, researchers at the University of Twente were able to make an informed choice of a specific crop and production region. They published their results in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) of 2 June.

Researchers at the university analysed 13 crops to determine the optimal production regions for each based on water consumption and climate date. Their goal was to make it easier to prevent biomass cultivation from jeopardising food production in regions where water is already in short supply.

The researchers found, for example, that it takes an average of 14,000 litres of water to produce one litre of biodiesel from rapeseed or soya. However, the water footprint for rapeseed in Western Europe is significantly smaller than in Asia. For soya, India has a large water footprint, while the figures for countries such as Italy and Paraguay are more favourable. In the generation of bioelectricity, too, there are big differences between the crops: sugar beet has by far the smallest water footprint – jatropha is 10 times less water-efficient. For the production of bioethanol, sugar beet is again by far the favourite: one litre of bioethanol made from sugar beet takes 1,400 litres of water, as against 2,500 litres for sugarcane, which is widely cultivated  in Brazil.  A new report from Novozymes describes how Brazil could produce up to 8 billion liters (2.1 billion gallons US) of biofuel from sugarcane residues (bagasse) by 2020, representing additional export revenue for Brazil of up to US$4 billion. In Brazil, the proportion of bioethanol used in transport fuel is already at 50%; by comparison, the proportion is 7% in the US, 2% in China, and 1% in Europe, according to Novozymes.

Click here to read the entire article.