It's bad enough for some prop planes to be referred to as being powered by elastic band. Now the skeptics could start having a dig at commercial aircraft flying on whatever from cooking oil to liquefied algae.
With the civil air travel industry under increasing pressure from increasing oil prices and legislation, the race is on to find viable alternatives to conventional kerosene and these so far appear to boil down to numerous types of biofuel.
Not surprisingly, the first trials of alternative fuel were started by British aviation pioneer, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic began London to Amsterdam flights with restricted biofuel usage in 2008. This was quickly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each utilized different 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 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 drought and insects, 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 bring out research and advancement into making use of biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airlines Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would serve as strategic experts for the job.
The newest airline company to begin experimenting with new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has actually carried out internal US flights using a mix of 80 % petroleum based fuel and 20% biofuel made from cooking oil. This mixture, it is declared, can cut damaging emissions by 10%.
One actually motivating advancement has actually been the move away from biofuels which compete head on with food consumers thereby preventing a cost spiral. Not so long ago, a rise in use of biofuels in cars caused a spike in maize costs as US farmers diverted excessive corn to fuel processing.
Hopefully in the future, airline companies and motorists will focus biofuel consumption on non-food sources such as jatropha curcas and algae. It would be a blended true blessing certainly if some people ended up starving just to satisfy somebody else's green qualifications.
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Airlines Focus On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
patricekates28 edited this page 2025-01-12 13:53:13 +08:00