The team that flew a Czech military jet on 100 percent biodiesel last October (see my post from Oct. 16, 2007) has plans to fly a Learjet around the world on the green fuel.
Four months ago, Douglas Rodante with chief pilot Carol Sugars at the controls and the team from Green Flight International flew a 40-year old Czech Aero L-29 Delfin for 30 minutes above the Nevada desert for a half-an-hour. The jet was made for short flights to stop potential defectors. With that in mind, the folks from Green Flight have decided to fly a Bombadier Learject around the world later this year or early in 2009. This story in the Candian Press has more details:
Bill Lear Jr., the president of Learjet before it was purchased by Bombardier in 1990, and Chris Cordova, a former flight engineer on Air Force One, have signed on as consultants.
“It’s a personal goal of mine to implement biofuels into mainstream aviation and mainstream transportation,” Rodante said in an interview from his home in Florida.
“I think it’s necessary that we do this first and foremost for environmental reasons.”
Since the jet flies at high altitude where the temperatures are really cold, Green Flight is planning on using tank heaters and chemicals to keep the fuel liquid and possibly mixing the biodiesel with kerosene. Officials believe emissions could be cut 50 to 80 percent compared to conventional jet fuel.
Four cabinet-level officials will be participating in the upcoming 
The Southern Waste Information eXchange and the Florida BioFuels Association are sponsoring the 1st Annual 
The conference will provide a forum for informing the public and private sectors of the economic and environmental benefits of converting waste materials to alternative fuels such as biodiesel and ethanol as well as energy recovery. 
The first E85 station for the state of Mississippi is scheduled to open later this month.
Ford’s Fuel off I-20 in Newton is pleased to be offering the fuel at 
Research into additional oilseeds to make into biodiesel is gaining more popularity, especially as the cost for soybean oil, currently the most commonly used feedstock, soars to record levels.
“We are hearing more and more positive talk when it comes to biodiesels, even more so than corn for ethanol,” Aakre said. “One of the advantages of biodiesel is the potential for individual farmers or a small group of farmers to produce their own fuel in a much simpler technology than ethanol.”
Rep. Alan Freeman, R-Macon, said House Bill 1174 would help farmers and agribusinesses in Georgia’s small but growing biofuel industry. With co-sponsors that include the Democratic minority leader and the governor’s floor leader, Freeman said he hopes the measure can win passage.
Jack Purdy, who has farmed in Woodstock for more than 30 years, now also is the owner of P.K. Biodiesel — a plant on his farm that makes fuel from soybean oil.
Now I can tell you that algae as an additional feedstock for biodiesel was a hot topic of discussion at the recent National Biodiesel Conference and Expo in Orlando, Florida. In fact, the last general session of the conference included a discussion of the various feedstocks, including talk about how algae could produce a thousand gallons of oil for every acre grown. 
The statement from the 25x’25 Alliance says, “environmentally sensitive lands should not be exploited in pursuit of renewable fuels. In fact, we have long held that the growing increase in demand for energy, along with food, feed and fiber, can be met with a boost in production facilitated by advances in technology.”