It's bad enough for some propeller aircrafts to be explained as being powered by elastic band. Now the skeptics might begin having a dig at business airplane flying on whatever from cooking oil to melted algae.
With the civil aviation industry under from rising oil costs and ecological legislation, the race is on to find practical alternatives to conventional kerosene and these so far appear to come down to different kinds of biofuel.
Not remarkably, the very first trials of alternative fuel were initiated by British air travel leader, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic started London to Amsterdam flights with limited biofuel usage in 2008. This was quickly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each used different blends of routine fuel and bio derivatives consisting of some from made from jatropha curcas which can grow in soil considered too poor for growing mainstream foodstuffs.
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 cited Jatropha curcas as one of the finest candidates for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to dry spell and pests, and produces seeds containing 27-40% oil.
Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aerial major 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 job.
The most recent airline to begin exploring with new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has conducted internal US flights utilizing 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 really motivating advancement has been the relocation far from biofuels which compete head on with food consumers thus preventing a price spiral. Not so long ago, a surge in use of biofuels in cars and trucks caused a spike in maize rates as US farmers diverted excessive corn to fuel processing.
Hopefully in the future, airline companies and vehicle drivers will focus biofuel intake on non-food sources such as jatropha and algae. It would be a combined true blessing certainly 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
Virgie Gower edited this page 1 week ago