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Clean Getaway: Meat Waste Joins Biofuels At Luxury Jet Show

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By Allison Lampert

LAS VEGAS, Oct 22 (Reuters) - At the world's greatest industry program in Las Vegas luxury jets are drawing buyers with their streamlined shapes, plush cabins - and increasingly, their usage of alternative fuels.

Fuel manufacturers and jetmakers are keen to showcase novel types of air travel fuel deemed less to the environment, from utilized cooking oil to the distinctly less attractive meat waste.

Business jet operators, like airline companies, have acquiesced ecological pressure on air travel and dedicated to cutting in half carbon emissions by 2050 compared with 2005.

Their hope is that embracing eco-friendly fuel to suppress emissions could make company jets more attractive to environmentally mindful buyers - particularly corporations facing concerns over sustainability from investors or green campaign groups.

The availability of less contaminating private jets could likewise spare the abundant and well-known the unfavorable publicity experienced by Britain's Prince Harry and his wife Meghan over a current personal jet trip to southern France.

Five Gulfstream jets on display screen in Las Vegas are utilizing California-produced fuel from inedible beef tallow.

The most recent waste-based fuels include "fats, grease and oils that are by-products of the food industry," said Bryan Sherbacow, primary commercial officer of Boston-based biofuel producer World Energy, which produces fuel from meat waste utilized by Gulfstream.

"All of our product is inedible."

Some of the other 79 aircraft on screen are anticipated to be powered by 150,000 gallons of other sustainable fuel mixes expected to be pumped at the show.

FLIGHT SHAMING

Private jets represent less than 0.1% of total annual carbon emissions worldwide, however can discharge, usually, as much as 20 times more carbon emissions per guest mile than jetliners, according to the London-based personal charter company Victor.

Prince Harry has protected his periodic use of personal jets to ensure his family's safety, and has actually said that on the unusual celebrations he does not fly commercially he offsets his emissions.

But planemakers say events such as the furore over his travel plan have added fresh difficulties for an industry already striving to validate its contribution to cutting corporate expenses.

"Incidents of flight shaming including using private jets are unfortunate when you consider that our industry has actually provided fuel efficiency improvements of 40% over the previous 40 years," said Bombardier Aviation President David Coleal.

Bombardier believes increased sustainable fuel use will help the industry make inroads with corporations and rich buyers. According to market data, billionaires only have a 19% service jet ownership rate.

But even an image makeover - with jets sporting sticker labels like "this airplane flies on eco-friendly fuels" and organisers including alternative fuel pumps for going to planes - is not likely to satisfy all critics at the Oct 22-24 luxury jet occasion.

Environmentalists and some analysts remain hesitant that biojetfuels, generally combined 50-50 with kerosene, will make a substantial effect on public perceptions about high-end travel.

"No quantity of Jatropha or Brazil-nut fuel can make organization jets look eco-friendly," stated aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia.

Demand from organization jet operators for eco-friendly fuels now far goes beyond supply and their interest might drive future production, Sherbacow stated.

World Energy, which produces 40 million gallons of biofuel at its California plant, could expand production as much as 150 million gallons by 2022.

Corporate charter business and experts are likewise seeing more interest from customers who desire to buy carbon credits to offset emissions from their flights.

Brian Proctor, CEO of Mente Group, a U.S. consultancy, stated emissions contributed in a business jet utilization research study his company recently finished for a Fortune 500 company.

"At the end of the day, I think that cost, expense per hour, range, speed and performance, that's still the (sales) driver. But I think people are ending up being more knowledgeable about the sustainability of operations and how it affects the planet." (Reporting By Allison Lampert, Editing by Tim Hepher and Alexandra Hudson)