[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/cs\/article\/modal\/6318\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n      1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n      2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n      3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n        \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n  \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003ETobacco-powered aeroplane to be tested \u2018within months\u2019\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt\u0027s one of a number of projects that are working to convert crops such as tobacco into sustainable energy and materials.\u003Cdiv class=\u0022text-center bg-bluelightest p-12 my-12 -mx-16\u0022\u003E\n  \u003Ch3 class=\u0022font-sans font-bold text-blue uppercase text-lg mb-8\u0022\u003EThe Issue\u003C\/h3\u003E\n  \u003Cspan class=\u0022inline-block w-1\/6 h-1 bg-blue mb-8\u0022\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\n  \u003Cp\u003EThe aviation industry is\u0026nbsp;one of the fastest-growing sources of emissions\u0026nbsp;and is responsible for\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/clima\/policies\/transport\/aviation\/index_en.htm\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Earound 3 %\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/a\u003Eof the EU\u2019s greenhouse gases.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EUsing bio-based fuels instead of fossil fuels is one way of\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/energy\/en\/topics\/biofuels\/biofuels-aviation\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Ereducing the environmental impact\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;of flying.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe EU has set out\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/energy\/node\/73\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Esustainability criteria\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;for biofuels and bioliquids to ensure real carbon savings and protection of biodiversity.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr Sergio Tommasini has a dream: fields of tobacco as far as the eye can see, thousands of hectares of green stretching across South Africa, Brazil and Europe.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut he is not some latter-day pedlar of a cancer-causing weed.\u0026nbsp; In fact, if you smoke one of his leaves you\u2019ll likely spit it out in disgust, says Dr Tommasini, managing director of Sunchem Holding, an Italian research and development company.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor this tobacco has no nicotine. It is grown for its seeds, which are rich in oil that can be used to make bio jet fuel.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAnd a tobacco-powered Boeing plane will be roaring along the Cape Town-Johannesburg corridor conducting tests within months, if things go to plan.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018It\u2019s going to be the greenest flight ever,\u2019 said Dr Tommasini.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELaunched in December 2014, Project Solaris is a collaboration between his company, the sustainable jet fuel supplier SkyNRG, and some private investors, supported by South African Airways and the aerospace company Boeing. The EU has part-funded their feasibility study to test the viability of the process before it is scaled up.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe hybrid tobacco, Solaris, for which Sunchem holds the international patent, currently grows on 50 hectares of land in Limpopo province, in the northeast of South Africa. Some two to three tonnes of crude oil can be pressed from its seeds per hectare per year, says Dr Tommasini.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESolaris has been bred to have leaves much smaller than the flappy ones of a normal tobacco plant, and to have oily seeds. The scientists believe it can overcome the notorious troubles that arose around first-generation biofuels such as sugar cane and maize, accused of competing with food production.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn South Africa, at least, it won\u2019t be food-versus-fuel, but fuel-versus-smokes \u2013 and Solaris could also be used in rotation on the 70 000 hectares of cotton plantations in the country, says Dr Tommasini.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EElsewhere, such as in Europe, it could be rotated with food crops, which would enhance the soil and break disease cycles. Meanwhile, the leftovers from seed-pressing yield a rich animal feed.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018It\u2019s not toxic, so it is feeding into the nutrition cycle,\u2019 he added.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAviation\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESo, is tobacco the answer to the dreams of the aviation industry?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn 2015 Solaris became certified by the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/rsb.org\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003ERoundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB)\u003C\/a\u003E, a global scheme supported by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), supporting the sustainable production of biofuels and other biomaterials.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOver the lifecycle of the fuel, it will lead to a cut of 75 % in carbon emissions compared with its fossil fuel counterparts, says Dr Tommasini \u2014 much better than the threshold of a 50 % reduction set by the RSB.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut Dr Jeremy Woods from the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London, UK, who is not involved in the project, says that, however hard they try, such lifecycle calculations can\u2019t fully take into account the carbon cost that comes with the clearing of virgin land for cultivation \u2014 which can happen indirectly because the original crop has been displaced to some other, previously unplanted terrain.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe recently calculated that four million hectares of land would need to be deployed to biofuel crops in order to supply the aviation industry.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018On the one hand it\u2019s very unlikely that biofuels could service today\u2019s and the future aviation industry,\u2019 said Dr Woods. But a more nuanced goal, in which biofuels are a partial and intermediate solution, looks more feasible.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018If you see biofuels as a share of a transition programme, then it suddenly doesn\u2019t look impossible,\u2019 he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cfigure role=\u0022group\u0022 class=\u0022@aligncenter@\u0022\u003E\n\u003Cimg alt=\u0022The airline industry has committed itself to stop CO2 emissions increasing from their level in 2020. The biggest factor that will enable them to reach this goal will be sustainable alternative fuel. Source: data from the International Civil Aviation Organization\u0022 height=\u0022400\u0022 src=\u0022\/research-and-innovation\/sites\/default\/files\/hm\/Infography-Aviation-1-72dpi.jpg\u0022 title=\u0022The airline industry has committed itself to stop CO2 emissions increasing from their level in 2020. The biggest factor that will enable them to reach this goal will be sustainable alternative fuel. Source: data from the International Civil Aviation Organization\u0022 width=\u0022585\u0022\u003E\n\u003Cfigcaption class=\u0022italic mb-4\u0022\u003EThe airline industry has committed itself to stop CO2 emissions increasing from their level in 2020. The biggest factor that will enable them to reach this goal will be sustainable alternative fuel. Source: data from the International Civil Aviation Organization\u003C\/figcaption\u003E\n\u003C\/figure\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETree tobacco\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHead north-east from South Africa and you\u0027ll hit the island of Madagascar, where scientists are growing a single hectare of the toxic, invasive tobacco tree, \u003Cem\u003ENicotiana glauca\u003C\/em\u003E \u2014 known for its love of the driest, hottest, most inhospitable patches of our crowded planet - which they want to turn into a source of sustainable energy and materials.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETree tobacco is a mostly unwelcome addition to a nation\u2019s flora. It is indigenous to South America, and is smoked by some Native Americans, but it is tenacious and invasive in many parts of the world. Victims of its poisonous leaves include some people who have mistaken it for spinach, and a number of ostriches.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut lately scientists have grown excited about its extraordinary ability to do without groundwater and its apparently low demand for other essentials such as the nitrogen required for photosynthesis.\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022text-center text-blue font-bold text-2xl w-full lg:w-1\/2 border-2 border-blue p-12 my-8 lg:m-12 lg:-ml-16 float-left\u0022\u003E\n  \u003Cspan class=\u0022text-5xl rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n  \u003Cp class=\u0022font-serif italic\u0022\u003E\u2018It\u2019s going to be the greenest flight ever.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n  \u003Cfooter\u003E\n    \u003Ccite class=\u0022not-italic font-normal text-sm text-black\u0022\u003EDr Sergio Tommasini, Sunchem Holding, Italy\u003C\/cite\u003E\n  \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018It\u2019s an incredibly hardy species and the growth is really quite astounding,\u2019 said Dr Alisdair Fernie, of the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology in Potsdam, Germany, who coordinates the MultiBioPro project, an industry-academic partnership funded by the EU.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis is a plant that does not need pampering with micro-irrigation, a common technique when farming in very dry soil. Instead it appears to absorb moisture from the air through its pores.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018As a potential biofuel this is essentially gold dust,\u2019 says Dr Fernie. \u2018It grows not even on marginal land but land that is completely bankrupt for agricultural use.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWork on \u003Cem\u003EN. glauca\u003C\/em\u003E is less advanced than on Solaris. Field trials have been done in the United Arab Emirates, and the hectare under cultivation in Madagascar will soon be harvested and the seeds taken to Germany for an attempt at biorefining for jet fuel, or as an additive to other fuels to reduce their emission of particulates and carbon monoxide.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs with Solaris, finding multiple uses for every part of the plant is thought to be key to its success, so MultiBioPro is also considering how the tree\u2019s biomass can be processed into other products.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWithin the toxic leaves lurks Vitamin D \u2014 a product increasingly in demand as a supplement \u2014 and these also contain solanesol, widely used in the pharmaceutical industry. Another strand of research in the programme is looking at other chemicals it might produce.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/textarea\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\n            \u003Cdiv id=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 class=\u0022ecl-help-block description\u0022\u003E\n      Please copy the above code and embed it onto your website to republish.\n    \u003C\/div\u003E\n  \u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003Cinput autocomplete=\u0022off\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022form-pi2yxfmpl485sjaqmncuhnykxubxvk0owwnnyrtmw4g\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_build_id\u0022 value=\u0022form-pi2YxFMpL485SJAQMNcuHNyKXUbXVK0OwwNNYRTmw4g\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003Cinput data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_id\u0022 value=\u0022modal_form_example_modal_form\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003C\/form\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E","dialogOptions":{"width":"800","modal":true,"title":"Republish this content"}}]