It's bad enough for some prop planes to be described as being powered by rubber bands. Now the cynics could start having a dig at commercial airplane flying on whatever from cooking oil to liquefied algae.
With the civil air travel industry under increasing pressure from rising oil costs and environmental legislation, the race is on to discover feasible options to standard kerosene and these up until now appear to boil down to different kinds of biofuel.
Not surprisingly, the first trials of alternative fuel were initiated by British aviation leader, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic began London to Amsterdam flights with minimal 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 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 household Euphorbiaceae.
In 2007 Goldman Sachs pointed out Jatropha jatropha curcas as one of the very best candidates for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to dry spell and bugs, and produces seeds consisting of 27-40% oil.
Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aeronautical significant Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation transferred to perform research study and development into using biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airline companies Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would serve as strategic consultants for the job.
The latest airline to begin exploring with new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has actually performed internal US flights utilizing a blend of 80 % petroleum based fuel and 20% made from cooking oil. This mix, it is declared, can cut damaging emissions by 10%.
One really encouraging development has been the relocation far from biofuels which compete head on with food customers therefore preventing a price spiral. Not so long ago, a rise in use of biofuels in automobiles triggered a spike in maize rates as US farmers diverted excessive corn to fuel processing.
Hopefully in the future, airlines and drivers will focus biofuel intake on non-food sources such as jatropha and algae. It would be a mixed true blessing undoubtedly if some people ended up starving simply to please another person's green credentials.
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Airlines Concentrate On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
Barrett McPhillamy edited this page 2025-01-14 01:28:39 +08:00