It's bad enough for some prop planes to be referred to as being powered by rubber bands. Now the skeptics could start having a dig at industrial aircraft flying on everything from cooking oil to melted algae.
With the civil aviation market under increasing pressure from rising oil costs and environmental legislation, the race is on to find feasible alternatives to traditional kerosene and these so far appear to come down to various types of biofuel.
Not remarkably, the first trials of alternative fuel were initiated 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 different blends of regular fuel and bio derivatives consisting of some from made from jatropha curcas which can grow in soil thought about too bad for growing mainstream foodstuffs.
Jatropha is a genus of roughly 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 finest candidates for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to drought and bugs, and produces seeds containing 27-40% oil.
Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aerial significant Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation transferred to perform research study and advancement into using biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airlines Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would function as tactical specialists for the project.
The current airline to begin experimenting with brand-new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has performed internal US flights utilizing a mix of 80 % petroleum based fuel and 20% biofuel made from cooking oil. This mixture, it is claimed, can cut hazardous emissions by 10%.
One really motivating development has been the move far from biofuels which contend head on with food customers thus preventing a cost spiral. Not so long earlier, a rise in usage of biofuels in cars caused a spike in maize costs as US farmers diverted too much corn to fuel processing.
Hopefully in the future, airline companies and vehicle drivers will focus biofuel usage on non-food sources such as jatropha curcas and algae. It would be a combined true blessing indeed if some people ended up starving simply to please somebody else's green credentials.
1
Airlines Focus On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
Collin Leone edited this page 2025-01-12 11:04:36 +01:00