It's bad enough for some prop planes to be referred to as being powered by elastic band. Now the cynics might begin having a dig at commercial aircraft flying on everything from cooking oil to liquefied algae.
With the civil aviation market under increasing pressure from increasing oil prices and environmental legislation, the race is on to find feasible options to traditional kerosene and these so far appear to boil down to different types of biofuel.
Not surprisingly, the very first trials of alternative fuel were started by British aviation pioneer, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic started London to Amsterdam flights with minimal biofuel usage in 2008. This was rapidly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each used various blends of routine fuel and bio derivatives consisting of some from made from jatropha which can grow in soil thought about too bad for growing mainstream foods.
Jatropha is a genus of around 175 succulent plants, shrubs and trees (some are deciduous, like Jatropha curcas), from the household Euphorbiaceae.
In 2007 Goldman Sachs pointed out Jatropha jatropha curcas as one of the best prospects for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to dry spell and insects, and produces seeds consisting of 27-40% oil.
Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aeronautical major Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation relocated to perform research and development into making use of biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airlines Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would function as strategic experts for the task.
The current airline company to start try out brand-new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has actually conducted internal US flights using a mix of 80 % petroleum based fuel and 20% biofuel made from cooking oil. This mix, it is declared, can cut damaging emissions by 10%.
One truly encouraging advancement has actually been the relocation away from biofuels which contend head on with food thus avoiding a cost spiral. Not so long back, a surge in usage of biofuels in automobiles triggered a spike in maize prices as US farmers diverted excessive corn to fuel processing.
Hopefully in the future, airlines and vehicle drivers will focus biofuel consumption on non-food sources such as jatropha curcas and algae. It would be a mixed blessing undoubtedly if some individuals ended up starving just to please somebody else's green qualifications.
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Airlines Focus On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
Hershel Somerset edited this page 3 months ago