It's bad enough for some propeller airplanes to be referred to as being powered by rubber bands. Now the skeptics could begin having a dig at business airplane flying on everything from cooking oil to melted algae.
With the civil air travel market under increasing pressure from increasing oil costs and ecological legislation, the race is on to discover viable alternatives to traditional kerosene and these up until now appear to boil down to different types of biofuel.
Not surprisingly, the very first trials of alternative fuel were initiated by British aviation leader, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic started London to Amsterdam flights with minimal biofuel use in 2008. This was rapidly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each used various blends of regular fuel and bio derivatives including some from made from which can grow in soil considered too poor for growing mainstream foodstuffs.
Jatropha is a genus of roughly 175 succulent plants, shrubs and trees (some are deciduous, like Jatropha curcas), from the household Euphorbiaceae.
In 2007 Goldman Sachs mentioned Jatropha curcas as one of the best prospects for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to drought and insects, and produces seeds consisting of 27-40% oil.
Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aerial major Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation moved to bring out research study and development into the use of biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airline companies Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would act as strategic specialists for the job.
The most recent airline to start explore new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has actually carried out internal US flights utilizing a blend of 80 % petroleum based fuel and 20% biofuel made from cooking oil. This mixture, it is claimed, can cut damaging emissions by 10%.
One really encouraging development has been the move far from biofuels which contend head on with food consumers thus avoiding a price spiral. Not so long earlier, a rise in use of biofuels in cars triggered a spike in maize rates as US farmers diverted too much corn to fuel processing.
Hopefully in the future, airline companies and vehicle drivers will focus biofuel intake on non-food sources such as jatropha and algae. It would be a blended true blessing indeed if some people wound up starving simply to please someone else's green credentials.
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Airlines Focus On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
Junko Nesbitt edited this page 2025-01-12 17:02:26 +09:00