It's bad enough for some propeller airplanes to be referred to as being powered by rubber bands. Now the skeptics might begin having a dig at commercial airplane flying on everything from cooking oil to liquefied algae.
With the civil air travel market under increasing pressure from rising oil costs and ecological legislation, the race is on to find feasible alternatives to standard kerosene and these up until now appear to come down to various kinds of biofuel.
Not surprisingly, the very first trials of alternative fuel were started by British aviation leader, 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 used various blends of regular fuel and bio derivatives consisting of some from made from jatropha curcas which can grow in soil thought about too poor for growing mainstream foods items.
jatropha curcas is a genus of around 175 succulent plants, shrubs and trees (some are deciduous, like Jatropha curcas), from the household Euphorbiaceae.
In 2007 Goldman Sachs pointed out Jatropha jatropha curcas as one of the best candidates for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to drought and insects, and produces seeds including 27-40% oil.
Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aeronautical major Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation moved to carry out research study and development into making use of biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airlines Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would serve as tactical experts for the job.
The latest airline to begin experimenting with new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has actually carried out 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 truly motivating has been the move away from biofuels which contend head on with food consumers thereby avoiding a cost spiral. Not so long ago, a rise in usage of biofuels in vehicles triggered a spike in maize rates as US farmers diverted excessive corn to fuel processing.
Hopefully in the future, airlines and drivers will focus biofuel usage on non-food sources such as jatropha and algae. It would be a blended blessing indeed if some individuals wound up starving simply to please another person's green credentials.
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Airlines Concentrate On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
sammietobias30 edited this page 2025-01-12 00:37:55 +09:00