It's bad enough for some prop planes to be described as being powered by elastic band. Now the cynics could start having a dig at business aircraft flying on everything from cooking oil to liquefied algae.
With the civil aviation market under increasing pressure from increasing oil rates and ecological legislation, the race is on to discover practical alternatives to standard kerosene and these so far appear to come down to various types of biofuel.
Not surprisingly, the very first trials of alternative fuel were started by British air travel leader, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic began London to Amsterdam flights with restricted biofuel usage in 2008. This was quickly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each utilized various blends of routine fuel and bio derivatives including some from made from jatropha which can grow in soil thought about too poor for growing mainstream foods.
jatropha curcas is a genus of roughly 175 succulent plants, shrubs and trees (some are deciduous, like Jatropha jatropha curcas), from the family Euphorbiaceae.
In 2007 Goldman Sachs cited Jatropha curcas as one of the best prospects for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to dry spell and bugs, and produces seeds including 27-40% oil.
Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aeronautical major Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation relocated to bring out research and development into using biofuels to airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airlines Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would serve as strategic specialists for the job.
The current airline to start try out brand-new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has actually carried out internal US flights using a mix of 80 % petroleum based fuel and 20% biofuel made from cooking oil. This mixture, it is declared, can cut damaging emissions by 10%.
One truly motivating development has been the relocation away from biofuels which compete head on with food consumers thereby avoiding a price spiral. Not so long back, a rise in usage of biofuels in automobiles triggered a spike in maize rates as US farmers diverted too much corn to fuel processing.
Hopefully in the future, airlines and vehicle drivers will focus biofuel intake on non-food sources such as jatropha and algae. It would be a combined blessing certainly if some individuals wound up starving just to satisfy someone else's green qualifications.
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Airlines Focus On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
elanawimberly edited this page 2025-01-12 05:16:03 +08:00