Is there greater efficiency in longer-distance airline travel (e.g. if take off and landing are fuel intensive but actual flying at altitude is relatively frictionless)?
KLM's website talks about synthetic kerosene as the key to reducing CO2 emissions and the need for an industry-wide initiative to bring production up to scale and make it cost competitive. This or something like hydrogen fuel will be needed to get to zero.
David, good points! Yes, longer flights are more efficient. So much of the fuel of a flight is spent just getting the plane up in the air, but once you're up there, you're cruising along. Longer flights fly higher with less air resistance, too. A flight from San Diego to New York would put your personal carbon footprint up another 3270 pounds of CO2, which is about seven times more than the trip to Las Vegas but ten times the distance. So, yes, it's more efficient.
From my understanding, synthetic kerosene is still kinda going through beta trials, but that is something for me to look into further.
The key to thinking about hydrogen is that it is not a fuel. It's a battery. We use an energy source to extract hydrogen from water. Hydrogen is only as green and the energy used to extract it.
Is there greater efficiency in longer-distance airline travel (e.g. if take off and landing are fuel intensive but actual flying at altitude is relatively frictionless)?
KLM's website talks about synthetic kerosene as the key to reducing CO2 emissions and the need for an industry-wide initiative to bring production up to scale and make it cost competitive. This or something like hydrogen fuel will be needed to get to zero.
David, good points! Yes, longer flights are more efficient. So much of the fuel of a flight is spent just getting the plane up in the air, but once you're up there, you're cruising along. Longer flights fly higher with less air resistance, too. A flight from San Diego to New York would put your personal carbon footprint up another 3270 pounds of CO2, which is about seven times more than the trip to Las Vegas but ten times the distance. So, yes, it's more efficient.
From my understanding, synthetic kerosene is still kinda going through beta trials, but that is something for me to look into further.
The key to thinking about hydrogen is that it is not a fuel. It's a battery. We use an energy source to extract hydrogen from water. Hydrogen is only as green and the energy used to extract it.