It's bad enough for some prop planes to be referred to as being powered by elastic band. Now the cynics might begin having a dig at commercial aircraft flying on whatever from cooking oil to liquefied algae.
With the civil aviation industry under increasing pressure from increasing oil costs and ecological legislation, the race is on to discover practical options to standard kerosene and these so far appear to come down to various kinds of biofuel.
Not surprisingly, the very first trials of alternative fuel were started by British air travel leader, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic started London to Amsterdam flights with minimal biofuel use in 2008. This was quickly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each used different blends of regular fuel and bio derivatives consisting of some from made from jatropha which can grow in soil considered too bad for foods.
jatropha curcas is a genus of around 175 succulent plants, shrubs and trees (some are deciduous, like Jatropha curcas), from the family Euphorbiaceae.
In 2007 Goldman Sachs pointed out Jatropha curcas as one of the very best prospects for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to dry spell and insects, and produces seeds including 27-40% oil.
Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aerial significant Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation transferred to perform research and development into making use of biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airline companies Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would function as tactical specialists for the task.
The current airline to start try out brand-new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has actually performed internal US flights using a mix of 80 % petroleum based fuel and 20% biofuel made from cooking oil. This mix, it is claimed, can cut damaging emissions by 10%.
One actually encouraging advancement has been the move away from biofuels which complete head on with food consumers consequently preventing a rate spiral. Not so long back, a rise in usage of biofuels in cars caused a spike in maize rates as US farmers diverted too much 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 combined blessing indeed if some people wound up starving just to please someone else's green qualifications.
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Airlines Focus On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
Bev Maclanachan edited this page 2025-01-12 13:12:39 +08:00