We all know that most of the air pollution is caused by the various means of transportation that is being used these days. Among these, airplanes are one of the culprits that add a major amount of poisonous gases in the atmosphere. In order to resolve this problem, airports in Michigan are planning to grow such crops on the airport land that can produce biofuels for the planes and also reduce the carbon footprint of the airplanes.
For now, this idea is being planned to be carried out in the Detroit Metro and Willow Run airports. Both the airports have an area of 1,700 acres. The airport owner Wayne County along with Michigan State University is planning to plant canola and mustard seeds as biofuel sources. This project will receive a state grant of $476,000 and is supposed to run through February 2012.
This idea will be soon carried out in the other airports also. Several other crops that can be an efficient source of fuel will be used for the purpose. Initially, the AgriEnergy Technology Demonstration project will be carried out on only 3 acres of land at Detroit Metro airport and this is supposed to produce 300 gallons of fuel. However, this amount is very less because the airport uses around 1 million gallons of fuel per day.
This is just the beginning. If the initial demonstration gives good results, the plan will be carried out on a large-scale. If this project is successful, there are future plans of building a plant on or near the airport that can process and provide its own fuel to the airplanes. This is a very interesting and important project, which, if successful, will help in producing fuel by a very natural method. Thus, the plants can help reduce the adverse effects that the airplanes have on our environment.
Via: Treehugger
