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As if the prospect of having the entire aviation industry
bidding for your services was not enough, the research team
that proves itself the first to deliver commercially viable
renewable aviation fuels could also soon find itself eligible
for a multimillion dollar prize.
The US Department of Transport has recently announced that
it is to work with the X
Prize Foundation - which famously awarded the $10m
Ansari prize to the first private manned space flight - to
develop new monetary incentives for the development of renewable
aviation fuels and technologies designed to curb the sector's
carbon footprint.
"The race to refuel American aviation is on and our hope
is that the X Prize will jump-start investment and spur innovation"
- said US Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters. "It
will be a competition that everyone wins, because a breakthrough
in alternative jet fuels is a potential game-changer that
could bring lower airline fuel costs and deliver greater US
energy independence - and cleaner air."
The X Prize Foundation will now undertake a 14-month consultation
with the aviation industry and independent experts as it seeks
to draw-up the rules for the competition and identify prize
sponsors.
It said that the primary aim of the prize would be to 'speed
up the development and implementation of cost-effective renewable
aviation fuels and technologies that have an environmental
life-cycle benefit and do not present potentially negative
side effects, such as the displacement of food production
or the inducement of land-use changes that lead to additional
greenhouse gas emissions'.
Research into alternative jet fuels has already attracted
considerable investment from the aviation sector - with Virgin
Atlantic earlier this year undertaking the first flight of
a commercial airliner powered by a mixture of biofuel and
conventional fuels (Click
Here) and Rolls Royce and British Airways recently
announcing a major new test programme to assess the viability
of alternative fuels (Click
Here).
However, the X Prize Foundation has a strong track record
of bolstering R&D spending - having prompted a tenfold
increase in investment in private sector research into manned
suborbital space flight through its initial Ansari prize.
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