It's bad enough for some propeller planes to be referred to as being powered by rubber bands. Now the cynics might start having a dig at commercial airplane flying on everything from cooking oil to melted algae.
With the civil aviation market under increasing pressure from rising oil rates and environmental legislation, the race is on to find practical alternatives to standard kerosene and these so far seem to boil down to numerous types of biofuel.
Not remarkably, the very first trials of alternative fuel were initiated by British air travel pioneer, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic began London to Amsterdam flights with limited biofuel usage in 2008. This was quickly 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 considered too bad for growing mainstream foods.
Jatropha is a genus of approximately 175 succulent plants, shrubs and trees (some are deciduous, like Jatropha jatropha curcas), from the household Euphorbiaceae.
In 2007 Goldman Sachs mentioned Jatropha curcas as one of the finest candidates for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to drought and bugs, and produces seeds consisting of 27-40% oil.
Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aeronautical major Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation relocated to perform research and development into using biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airline companies Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would act as strategic experts for the job.
The current airline company to begin experimenting with brand-new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has performed internal US flights utilizing a blend of 80 % petroleum based 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 far from biofuels which compete head on with food consumers thus preventing a price spiral. Not so long earlier, a surge in usage of biofuels in automobiles caused a spike in maize prices as US farmers diverted too much corn to fuel processing.
Hopefully in the future, airlines and drivers will focus biofuel consumption on such as jatropha and algae. It would be a mixed blessing undoubtedly if some individuals wound up starving simply to satisfy someone else's green qualifications.
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Airlines Focus On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
rwxannis849548 edited this page 2025-01-12 03:44:18 +08:00