It's bad enough for some propeller airplanes to be referred to as being powered by rubber bands. Now the cynics might start having a dig at commercial airplane flying on whatever from cooking oil to melted algae.
With the civil air travel industry under increasing pressure from oil prices and ecological legislation, the race is on to find practical options to traditional kerosene and these up until now appear to boil down to numerous types of biofuel.
Not surprisingly, the first trials of alternative fuel were initiated by British air travel leader, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic started London to Amsterdam flights with restricted biofuel use in 2008. This was quickly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each utilized various blends of regular fuel and bio derivatives including 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 family Euphorbiaceae.
In 2007 Goldman Sachs cited Jatropha curcas as one of the very best candidates for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to drought and insects, and produces seeds containing 27-40% oil.
Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aeronautical significant Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation transferred to perform research and advancement into the use of biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airlines Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would function as strategic consultants for the task.
The latest airline company to start experimenting with 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 claimed, can cut harmful emissions by 10%.
One truly encouraging development has actually been the move away from biofuels which complete head on with food consumers consequently avoiding a cost spiral. Not so long earlier, a rise in use of biofuels in automobiles triggered a spike in maize prices as US farmers diverted too much corn to fuel processing.
Hopefully in the future, airlines and motorists will focus biofuel usage on non-food sources such as jatropha and algae. It would be a blended true blessing indeed if some individuals wound up starving simply to please somebody else's green credentials.
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Airlines Concentrate On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
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