It's bad enough for some prop aircrafts to be referred to as being powered by elastic band. Now the cynics might start having a dig at industrial aircraft flying on whatever from cooking oil to melted algae.
With the civil air travel market under increasing pressure from increasing oil prices and environmental legislation, the race is on to alternatives to conventional kerosene and these up until now seem to come down to numerous types of biofuel.
Not remarkably, the very first trials of alternative fuel were initiated by British air travel pioneer, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic began London to Amsterdam flights with restricted biofuel use in 2008. This was rapidly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each utilized various blends of regular fuel and bio derivatives consisting of some from made from jatropha which can grow in soil considered too poor for growing mainstream foods.
jatropha curcas is a genus of roughly 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 pests, 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 moved to perform research study and development into the use of biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airline companies Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would serve as strategic experts for the project.
The current airline company to start explore new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has conducted internal US flights using a mix of 80 % petroleum based fuel and 20% biofuel made from cooking oil. This mixture, it is claimed, can cut damaging emissions by 10%.
One actually encouraging advancement has been the relocation away from biofuels which contend head on with food customers thereby preventing a price spiral. Not so long back, a surge 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, airlines and vehicle drivers will focus biofuel consumption on non-food sources such as jatropha and algae. It would be a combined true blessing certainly if some individuals ended up starving just to satisfy somebody else's green credentials.
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Airlines Focus On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
Abbie Conroy edited this page 2025-01-18 12:10:48 +08:00