It's bad enough for some prop airplanes to be explained as being powered by rubber bands. Now the cynics could begin having a dig at commercial airplane flying on whatever from cooking oil to liquefied algae.
With the civil air travel industry under increasing pressure from increasing oil prices and environmental legislation, the race is on to discover feasible options to standard kerosene and these up until now appear to boil down to numerous kinds of biofuel.
Not surprisingly, the first trials of alternative fuel were initiated by British air travel leader, 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 used 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 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 finest candidates for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to dry spell and bugs, and produces seeds including 27-40% oil.
Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aerial major Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation relocated 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 act as strategic consultants for the job.
The newest airline to begin explore new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has actually carried out internal US flights utilizing a blend of 80 % fuel and 20% biofuel made from cooking oil. This mix, it is claimed, can cut damaging emissions by 10%.
One really encouraging development has been the relocation away from biofuels which contend head on with food consumers consequently avoiding a price spiral. Not so long ago, a rise in usage of biofuels in automobiles triggered a spike in maize prices as US farmers diverted excessive corn to fuel processing.
Hopefully in the future, airlines and vehicle drivers will focus biofuel usage on non-food sources such as jatropha and algae. It would be a mixed true blessing undoubtedly if some people ended up starving just to please someone else's green credentials.
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Airlines Concentrate On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
chrislindrum91 edited this page 2025-01-12 04:08:45 +08:00