It's bad enough for some prop aircrafts to be explained as being powered by rubber bands. Now the skeptics might begin having a dig at commercial airplane flying on whatever from cooking oil to liquefied algae.
With the civil aviation market under increasing pressure from increasing oil costs and ecological legislation, the race is on to find practical alternatives to traditional kerosene and these up until now seem to come down to numerous types of biofuel.
Not surprisingly, the very first trials of alternative fuel were started by British air travel pioneer, Sir Richard Branson, whose started London to Amsterdam flights with minimal biofuel use in 2008. This was quickly followed by Lufthansa 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 considered too poor for growing mainstream foods.
Jatropha is a genus of approximately 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 drought and pests, and produces seeds including 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 advancement into the use of 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 newest airline company to begin try out new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has conducted 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 hazardous emissions by 10%.
One actually motivating development has actually been the move far from biofuels which contend head on with food consumers therefore avoiding a cost spiral. Not so long ago, a rise in usage of biofuels in cars triggered a spike in maize costs as US farmers diverted excessive corn to fuel processing.
Hopefully in the future, airlines and vehicle drivers will focus biofuel intake on non-food sources such as jatropha and algae. It would be a blended true blessing indeed if some people ended up starving just to please somebody else's green qualifications.
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Airlines Focus On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
giagabbard5873 edited this page 2025-01-12 03:54:06 +09:00