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Re:Engineers develop a 96% efficient process to make formate... by d_silin on Tuesday October 31, 2023 @08:15PM (#38093094)
You won't be able to ship 300+ people across Atlantic any time soon on a EV glider. So, a realistic take is using biofuels instead of kerosene for aicraft engines.
Re:Engineers develop a 96% efficient process to make formate... by Qwertious on Tuesday October 31, 2023 @09:37PM (#38093634)
Biofuels are not a realistic take - most of our farming runs on oil, so most (note: not all) biofuels turn oil into less oil.

Also, farming is how we produce our food, and if we have the overhead to produce fuel instead, then we have overhead to lower our output to healthier levels to avoid overtaxing our farmland.

Currently we have no viable sustainable aeroplane fuel. Theoretically we could design planes that work well with hydrogen, but hydrogen is expensive as heck already and we'd need to not only replace the planes, but also all our refueling infrastructure. Also it wouldn't be ready for a decade or two anyway, so in the mean time there's literally sustainable option.

Ideally, we'd find a way to make synthfuel somewhat viable, but in the mean time our best option is reducing plane usage and reducing emissions elsewhere in the economy.

Re:Engineers develop a 96% efficient process to make formate... by 1letterunixname on Wednesday November 01, 2023 @04:27AM (#38095801)
Correct. Fuels are a lossy intermediary. Electricity has the entropy advantage.

Brazil is insanely wasteful with their sugar/biofuel scheme. Japan will also be inefficient going to hydrogen.

Re:Engineers develop a 96% efficient process to make formate... by tonyedgecombe on Thursday November 02, 2023 @04:34AM (#38110534)
[delayed]