It's bad enough for some prop planes to be referred to as being powered by rubber bands. Now the could begin having a dig at business airplane flying on whatever from cooking oil to liquefied algae.
With the civil air travel market under increasing pressure from increasing oil rates and environmental legislation, the race is on to find practical options to conventional kerosene and these up until now seem to come down to various kinds of biofuel.
Not surprisingly, the first trials of alternative fuel were initiated by British aviation pioneer, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic began London to Amsterdam flights with minimal biofuel use in 2008. This was quickly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each used various blends of regular fuel and bio derivatives consisting of some from made from jatropha curcas which can grow in soil thought about too bad for growing mainstream foods items.
jatropha curcas is a genus of roughly 175 succulent plants, shrubs and trees (some are deciduous, like Jatropha curcas), from the family Euphorbiaceae.
In 2007 Goldman Sachs mentioned Jatropha curcas as one of the best candidates for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to dry spell and insects, and produces seeds containing 27-40% oil.
Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aeronautical major Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation moved to carry out 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 serve as strategic experts for the project.
The current airline to begin explore brand-new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has actually conducted internal US flights utilizing a blend of 80 % petroleum based fuel and 20% biofuel made from cooking oil. This mix, it is declared, can cut harmful emissions by 10%.
One actually motivating advancement has been the relocation away from biofuels which contend head on with food consumers consequently avoiding a cost spiral. Not so long ago, a surge in usage of biofuels in automobiles triggered a spike in maize prices as US farmers diverted too much corn to fuel processing.
Hopefully in the future, airline companies and vehicle drivers will focus biofuel intake on non-food sources such as jatropha curcas and algae. It would be a mixed true blessing indeed if some individuals wound up starving simply to please somebody else's green qualifications.
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Airlines Focus On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
Dotty Galvan edited this page 2025-01-17 18:25:37 +00:00