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What do you folk reckon will be the mid- to long-term impact, if any, on the heli industry with the current dependence on fossil fuels, given the increasing cost and eventual drying up of this resource? Is there any technology in the making to supersede the current combustion engines? I figure this is an interesting idea to ponder, especially for someone like me who is looking at a possible career in heli that could well span into many years distant, when things may be forced to change.

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i don't think that helicopters are going to go away. with the increasing price of hydrocarbons it will likely create an increase in demand, at least in the exploration business.

i wouldn't be surprised if the equivalent of bio jet-fuel (a derivative of bio-deisel) made an appearance, so long as the engine manufacturers work on getting it approved for their fuel systems.

 

interesting question, though.

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Being a bit of a fan of Biodiesel myself, I have often wonder about the feasiblity of using it in a turbine...

 

Then the other day I came across a Popular Mechanics story about Jay Leno's latest super car being built by GM which is powered by a Honeywell turbine (dont have the details infront of me) which is designed to run on B100 which is a 100% biodiesel fuel.

 

I am sure it will be in the future for biodiesel, but there will have to be a huge amount of testing and refinement of it before it will make its way into aircraft turbines, one of the largest hurdles is the high gel point of biodiesel and the cool temperatures that aircraft are exposed to.

 

will just have to see where it goes...

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Guest graunch1
What do you folk reckon will be the mid- to long-term impact, if any, on the heli industry with the current dependence on fossil fuels, given the increasing cost and eventual drying up of this resource? Is there any technology in the making to supersede the current combustion engines? I figure this is an interesting idea to ponder, especially for someone like me who is looking at a possible career in heli that could well span into many years distant, when things may be forced to change.

 

Interesting thought but one for in the far distant future because of the tremendous reserves of hydrocarbons. The Athabaska Oils Sands in Canada are believed to hold as much oil as Saudi only it's a little harder to extract. The Canadian Beaufort Sea also has a huge amount of oil that was originally explored in the early 80s but left due to the oil crash of the late 80s. It is estimated that there is billions of barells up there and eventually thay area will be exploited.

 

Both locations involve lots of helicopter time so for our industry its a funny kind of double-edged sword. Fly lots, find lots of oil, burn lots of oil, run out of oil.... :mellow:

 

As a guess the running out scenario won't occur for at least 50-100 years in the future and I am sure by then the multi-modal plasma zorchatron engine will be perfected. :)

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I run B5 (5% bio diesel) in a bobcat and loader with no trouble...100% bio diesel would have problems in a turbine as it will gel at lower temps.

 

Mark

 

Air New Zealand is currently (with boeing and some engine manufacurers) looking int bio-fuels for their Jet transport fleet. They are expecting results within 3 years.........

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Guest graunch1
Interesting. Thanks for your thoughts.

T.

 

Also won't work in out Arctic or in the Antarctic where surface tempertures can get as low as -60 :o so the Twin Otters and Helis working couldn't use it. the diesel trucks up there burn "Arctic Diesel" ie Jet fuel :)

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