It's bad enough for some prop planes to be referred to as being powered by rubber bands. Now the cynics might start having a dig at business aircraft flying on whatever from cooking oil to liquefied algae.
With the civil air travel industry under increasing pressure from increasing oil costs and environmental legislation, the race is on to find feasible alternatives to traditional kerosene and these so far appear to boil down to numerous types of biofuel.
Not surprisingly, the very first trials of alternative fuel were initiated by British air travel leader, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic started London to Amsterdam flights with minimal 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 including some from made from jatropha curcas which can grow in soil considered too poor for growing mainstream foods.
Jatropha is a genus of approximately 175 succulent plants, shrubs and trees (some are deciduous, like Jatropha curcas), from the household Euphorbiaceae.
In 2007 Goldman Sachs pointed out Jatropha curcas as one of the very best candidates for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to drought and bugs, and produces seeds consisting of 27-40% oil.
Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aerial significant Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation transferred to perform research and advancement into using to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airline companies Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would serve as strategic specialists for the task.
The current airline company to begin exploring with new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has actually performed internal US flights using a blend of 80 % petroleum based fuel and 20% biofuel made from cooking oil. This mix, it is declared, can cut hazardous emissions by 10%.
One really motivating advancement has been the move far from biofuels which compete head on with food customers thus preventing a cost spiral. Not so long earlier, a rise in usage of biofuels in vehicles triggered a spike in maize prices as US farmers diverted excessive corn to fuel processing.
Hopefully in the future, airline companies and drivers will focus biofuel intake on non-food sources such as jatropha and algae. It would be a blended blessing certainly if some individuals wound up starving just to please another person's green qualifications.
1
Airlines Concentrate On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
geoffreyglowac edited this page 1 week ago