It's bad enough for some prop airplanes to be described as being powered by elastic band. Now the skeptics might start having a dig at business aircraft flying on everything from cooking oil to liquefied algae.
With the civil air travel market under increasing pressure from increasing oil prices and ecological legislation, the race is on to find practical options to standard kerosene and these so far seem to come down to different kinds of biofuel.
Not surprisingly, the first trials of alternative fuel were started by British air travel pioneer, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic began London to Amsterdam flights with limited biofuel use in 2008. This was quickly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each used various blends of routine fuel and bio derivatives including some from made from jatropha which can grow in soil considered too bad for growing mainstream foods items.
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 mentioned Jatropha curcas as one of the very best candidates for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to dry spell and bugs, and produces seeds including 27-40% oil.
Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aeronautical significant Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation transferred to bring out research and development into using biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airline companies Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would function as tactical experts for the job.
The most current airline to start new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has conducted internal US flights using a blend of 80 % petroleum based fuel and 20% biofuel made from cooking oil. This mix, it is claimed, can cut harmful emissions by 10%.
One really motivating advancement has actually been the move away from biofuels which complete head on with food customers thus avoiding a cost spiral. Not so long back, a surge in use of biofuels in cars and trucks 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 usage on non-food sources such as jatropha curcas and algae. It would be a combined blessing indeed if some people ended up starving simply to satisfy somebody else's green credentials.
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Airlines Focus On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
Joesph Cottman edited this page 2 weeks ago