It's bad enough for some prop aircrafts to be explained as being powered by elastic band. Now the cynics might start having a dig at commercial aircraft flying on whatever from cooking oil to melted algae.
With the civil aviation market under increasing pressure from increasing oil prices and ecological legislation, the race is on to find viable options to conventional kerosene and these so far seem to boil down to numerous kinds of biofuel.
Not remarkably, the first trials of alternative fuel were initiated by travel pioneer, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic started London to Amsterdam flights with restricted biofuel usage in 2008. This was quickly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each used various blends of regular fuel and bio derivatives including some from made from jatropha which can grow in soil considered too bad for growing mainstream foods items.
jatropha curcas 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 cited Jatropha curcas as one of the very best candidates for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to dry spell 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 moved to perform research and advancement into making use of biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airline companies Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would act as tactical consultants for the project.
The most recent airline to begin try out brand-new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has performed internal US flights using a blend of 80 % petroleum based fuel and 20% biofuel made from cooking oil. This mixture, it is claimed, can cut harmful emissions by 10%.
One truly encouraging advancement has been the relocation far from biofuels which contend head on with food consumers thereby preventing a cost spiral. Not so long earlier, a rise in use of biofuels in cars triggered a spike in maize costs as US farmers diverted too much corn to fuel processing.
Hopefully in the future, airlines and drivers will focus biofuel usage on non-food sources such as jatropha and algae. It would be a mixed blessing indeed if some people wound up starving simply to satisfy another person's green credentials.
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Airlines Focus On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
Hassan Mcgehee edited this page 2025-01-12 07:54:39 +02:00