It's bad enough for some prop planes to be referred to as being powered by elastic band. Now the cynics might start having a dig at business aircraft flying on whatever from cooking oil to liquefied algae.
With the civil air travel market under increasing pressure from increasing oil costs and ecological legislation, the race is on to find practical alternatives to conventional kerosene and these so far seem to come down to various kinds of biofuel.
Not remarkably, the first trials of alternative fuel were initiated by British air travel pioneer, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic started London to Amsterdam flights with limited biofuel usage in 2008. This was rapidly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each utilized different blends of regular fuel and bio derivatives including some from made from jatropha which can grow in soil thought about too poor for growing mainstream foods.
Jatropha is a genus of roughly 175 succulent plants, shrubs and trees (some are deciduous, like Jatropha curcas), from the household Euphorbiaceae.
In 2007 Goldman Sachs pointed out Jatropha curcas as one of the best candidates for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to dry spell and pests, and produces seeds consisting of 27-40% oil.
Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aeronautical significant Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation relocated to bring out research study 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 consultants for the job.
The most recent airline to start try out brand-new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has performed US flights utilizing a blend of 80 % petroleum based fuel and 20% biofuel made from cooking oil. This mix, it is declared, can cut hazardous emissions by 10%.
One actually encouraging advancement has actually been the relocation far from biofuels which complete head on with food consumers therefore avoiding a cost spiral. Not so long back, a rise in use of biofuels in vehicles caused 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 and algae. It would be a blended true blessing certainly if some individuals wound up starving just to please somebody else's green qualifications.
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Airlines Focus On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
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