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by srssays 3375 days ago
A better idea would be to dig oil out of the ground, process it into kerosene, and use that to power jet turbines on the aircraft.
1 comments

At some point we're going to need to stop doing that, hence the need for alternative ideas.
If the goal is to reduce carbon emissions from aviation then a more viable approach would be to produce liquid hydrocarbon fuel as a biofuel or through artificial synthesis using electrical power from renewable sources. Barring a technology breakthrough, batteries will only be usable for the shortest flights.
Sure. How about LNG (liquid methane)? We have enough natural gas to last quite a while. In the far future, hopefully we will have mastered producing kerosene using algae.
LNG tanks are far from lightweight; to keep LNG at room temperature is about 320 atmospheres of pressure. Liquid propane on the other hand is about 8 atmospheres. Mind you at altitude it's around -50 ~ -60 C, but that will only reduce the pressure requirements to approx 100 atm. Also, LNG has about 60% of the energy density of kerosene. SO to use LNG you'd be taking a double whammy, lower density and heavier tanks.
Sounds like propane is a winner. Would it help to use a composite tank a la SpaceX?