It's bad enough for some propeller aircrafts to be explained as being powered by elastic band. Now the skeptics might begin having a dig at commercial aircraft flying on whatever from cooking oil to melted algae.
With the civil air travel market under increasing pressure from increasing oil costs and environmental legislation, the race is on to find feasible options to traditional kerosene and these so far seem to boil down to various types of biofuel.
Not remarkably, the first trials of alternative fuel were initiated by British aviation leader, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic began London to Amsterdam flights with restricted biofuel usage in 2008. This was rapidly followed by and Air New Zealand who each utilized different blends of regular fuel and bio derivatives consisting of some from made from jatropha which can grow in soil thought about too bad for growing mainstream foodstuffs.
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 pointed out Jatropha curcas as one of the finest prospects 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 significant Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation moved to perform research and development into the use of biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airline companies Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would act as strategic experts for the task.
The latest airline company to begin explore new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has performed internal US flights using a mix of 80 % petroleum based fuel and 20% biofuel made from cooking oil. This mix, it is declared, can cut harmful emissions by 10%.
One truly encouraging development has been the move far from biofuels which complete head on with food customers thus preventing a rate spiral. Not so long ago, 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 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 people wound up starving simply to satisfy somebody else's green qualifications.
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Airlines Focus On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
Clarita Vanhoose edited this page 2025-01-12 05:34:46 +00:00