New Jet Fuel Made of Waste and Fats Spews Less Carbon
飛機燃油減排碳 廢棄物製成
By Jad Mouawad and Diane Cardwell

Sometime this summer, a United Airlines flight will take off from Los Angeles International Airport bound for San Francisco using fuel generated from farm waste and oils derived from animal fats.
今年夏天，美國聯合航空公司一架班機從洛杉磯國際機場飛往舊金山時，將使用以農場廢棄物和動物脂肪油脂製成的燃料。

For passengers, little will be different – the engines will still roar, the seats in economy will still be cramped – but for the airlines and the biofuels industry, the flight will represent a milestone: the first time a domestic airline operates passenger flights using an alternative jet fuel.
飛機上的乘客不會察覺有什麼不同，引擎仍是轟隆作響，經濟艙的座位坐起來也還是很擠，可是對航空公司與生物燃料業者而言，這趟飛行卻豎立了一座里程碑：這是美國國內航空公司首次以替代飛機燃料載客。

For years, biofuels have been seen as an important part of the solution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. And airlines have been seen as a promising customer in a biofuels industry that has struggled to reach its goals.
多年來，生質燃料一直被視為解決減排溫室氣體重要的一環。而經營難達目標的生質燃料業始終看好航空公司可望成為客戶。

United says it plans to invest $30 million in one of the largest producers of aviation biofuels, Fulcrum BioEnergy, the biggest investment in alternative fuels so far by a domestic airline. (Cathay Pacific, based in Hong Kong, last year announced a smaller investment in Fulcrum.)
聯合航空公司計畫對航空生質燃料最大製造商之一「支點生物能源」投資3000萬美元，是迄今美國國內航空公司對替代燃料最大的一筆投資。（香港的國泰航空公司去年也宣布對支點投資，但金額較小。)

The quantities that United is planning to buy from Fulcrum constitute a small drop in its fuel consumption. Last year, United’s fleet consumed 14.8 billion liters of fuel, at a cost of $11.6 billion.
聯航打算向支點採購的數量僅占其燃料總用量的極小部分。去年，聯航機隊共用油148億公升，耗資116億美元。

But airlines are increasingly under pressure to reduce carbon emissions. The Obama administration proposed last month that new limits on aviation emissions be developed, and the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations agency, is expected to complete its own negotiations on limiting carbon pollution by February 2016.
但航空公司面臨的減少排碳壓力與日俱增。歐巴馬政府上月建議對航空排放制定新限值，聯合國國際民航組織預計2016年2月完成對碳汙染設限的談判。

“There is a significant role for biofuels within the aviation sector, specifically for reducing carbon emissions,” said Debbie Hammel, a resource specialist at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
「自然資源保護委員會」的資源專家黛比．哈默爾說：「生質燃料在航空業扮演要角，特別是碳減排上。」

Airlines say they have reason to adapt, not only to reduce pollution but also to lower what is usually their biggest cost: jet fuel.
航空公司表示，他們有必須適應的理由，不僅是為減少汙染，還為了降低通常是他們最大成本的飛機燃油費用。」

Fulcrum, based in California, has developed a technology that turns household trash into sustainable aviation fuel, a kind that can be blended directly with traditional jet fuels. It is building a biofuel refinery in Nevada to open in 2017, and has plans for five more plants. Fulcrum said its technology can cut an airline’s carbon emissions by 80 percent compared with traditional jet fuel.
總部在加州的支點已開發出可將家庭垃圾轉換成永續航空燃料的技術，它可直接和傳統飛機燃油混合使用。公司正在內華達州建造一座生質燃料煉油廠，預計2017年啟用，還計畫建造另外五座。支點表示，與傳統油料相較，他們的技術可讓航空公司碳排放量減少八成。

United’s deal with Fulcrum is one of many that airlines have made in recent years.
聯航與支點的交易是近年民航業所做的許多投資之一。

Alaska Airlines aims to use biofuels at least at one of its airports by 2020. Southwest Airlines announced last year it would purchase about 11 million liters a year of jet fuel made from wood residues from Red Rock Biofuels.
阿拉斯加航空目標是2020年前至少在一座機場使用生質燃料。西南航空去年宣布，每年將從「紅岩生質燃料」購買以木渣製成的約1100萬公升飛機燃料。

Last year, British Airways joined with Solena Fuels to build a biofuel refinery near London’s Heathrow Airport, which will be completed by 2017.
去年，英國航空加入「索雷納燃料」，準備在倫敦希斯洛機場附近建造一座生質燃料煉油廠，預計2017年竣工。

United’s deal is the airline’s second major push toward alternative fuels. In 2013, the airline agreed to buy 57 million liters of biofuels over three years from a California-based producer called AltAir Fuels, which makes biofuels out of nonedible natural oils and agricultural waste.
聯航的交易是該公司朝替代燃料發展的第二個重大推進動作。2013年，該公司同意3年內從加州生產商「艾爾特航空燃料」購買5700萬公升生質燃料，該公司是以非食用天然油脂和農業廢棄物生產生質燃料。

United expects the first roughly 19 million liters from AltAir will be delivered this summer at its Los Angeles International Airport hub to help power the flights to San Francisco.
聯航預計艾爾特航空燃料會在今夏將約1900萬公升的第一批貨，交至該公司的洛杉磯樞紐機場，供飛舊金山的航班使用。

For the first two weeks, four to five flights a day will carry a fuel mixture that is 30 percent biofuel and 70 percent traditional jet fuel; after that, the fuel will be blended into the overall supply, United said.
聯航說，頭兩周，每天會有4到5個航班攜帶30%為生質燃料、70%為傳統燃料的混合油料，其後，所有的用油都會混摻生質燃料。

By burning biofuel products like farm waste that have already absorbed carbon during their lifetime, jet engines avoid introducing into the atmosphere new carbon from a fossil fuel, said Angela Foster-Rice of United.
聯航的安吉拉．佛斯特-萊斯說，藉由燃燒生質燃料產品，例如在使用期間已吸收碳的農場廢棄物，噴氣引擎可不再因為燃燒化石燃料而有的新碳排入大氣。

And the airlines seem to have little choice. For example, airlines, unlike automakers, cannot turn to other options like electrification, said Ms. Hammel of the Natural Resources Defense Council, which is why it is important, she added, that the fuels be sustainably produced.
航空公司似乎別無選擇。自然資源保護委員會的哈默爾說，舉例而言，航空公司無法和車廠一樣，轉投向電氣化等其他選項。她說，這些燃料必須能夠永續生產也因此變得很重要。

But despite the airlines’ interest, there are still hurdles to the large-scale development of biofuels – most notably reasonable cost and reliable supplies.
儘管航空公司很感興趣，大規模發展生質燃料仍障礙重重，最值得關切的是合理的成本和可靠的供應。

E. James Macias, Fulcrum’s chief executive, said Fulcrum could produce its biofuel for “a lot less than” about 26 cents per liter. (United bought its jet fuel for about 55 cents per liter, on average, in the first quarter, and said its deal with Fulcrum was competitive with the price of traditional jet fuel.)
支點執行長E．詹姆斯．馬西亞斯表示，支點可以比每公升約26美分「低很多」的成本生產生質燃料。（第一季，平均而言聯航購買的飛機燃料約是每公升55美分，公司表示和支點的交易，在和傳統飛機燃料價格相較之下，相當具有競爭力。）

By 2050, the airline industry hopes to cut its greenhouse gas emissions to half of their 2005 levels, according to the International Air Transport Association. But getting there will not be easy.
國際航空運輸協會表示，航空業希望2050年時將溫室氣體排放減至2005年水平的一半。不過，達成目標並不容易。

“That is why it is important to actually invest, and be willing to take on some of the risk,” Ms. Foster-Rice said, “and encourage the companies to really focus on jet fuel at a cost-competitive price.”
佛斯特-萊斯說：「正因如此，實際投資和願意承擔部分風險，以及鼓勵企業真正聚焦發展具有成本競爭力的飛機燃料十分重要。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/30/business/energy-environment/farm-waste-and-animal-fats-will-help-power-a-united-jet.html

2015-07-14聯合報/G5版/UNITED DAILY NEWS 王麗娟譯 原文參見紐時週報八版上