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07
Tobacco Fuel
Dr 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 . But he is not some latter-day peddler of a cancer-causing weed . In fact , if you smoke one of his leaves you ’ ll likely spit it out in disgust , says Dr Tommasini , managing director of Sunchem Holding , an Italian research and development company . For this tobacco has no nicotine . It is grown for its seeds , which are rich in oil that can be used to
Dr . Sergio Tommasini make bio jet fuel . And a tobacco-powered Boeing plane will be roaring along the Cape Town-Johannesburg corridor showing tests within months , if things go to plan . ‘ It ’ s going to be the greenest flight ever ,’ said Dr Tommasini . Launched in December 2014 , Project Solaris is 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 practicability study to test the practicality of the process before it is scaled up . The hybrid tobacco , Solaris , for which Sunchem holds the international patent , currently cultivates on 50 hectares of land in Limpopo province , in the northeast of South Africa . Some two to three tones of crude oil can be compelled from its seeds per hectare per year , says Dr Tommasini . Solaris 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 disreputable troubles that ascended around first-generation biofuels such as sugar cane and maize ,