It's bad enough for some prop airplanes to be referred to as being powered by rubber bands. Now the could begin having a dig at industrial airplane flying on everything from cooking oil to liquefied algae.
With the civil aviation market under increasing pressure from rising oil costs and ecological legislation, the race is on to find feasible options to standard kerosene and these so far seem to come down to numerous kinds of biofuel.
Not remarkably, the first trials of alternative fuel were initiated by British aviation pioneer, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic began 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 routine fuel and bio derivatives consisting of some from made from jatropha which can grow in soil thought about too bad for growing mainstream foods items.
Jatropha is a genus of around 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 very best prospects for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to drought 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 relocated to perform research and advancement into the use of biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airlines Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would function as tactical specialists for the task.
The current airline to start exploring with new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has actually conducted internal US flights using a blend of 80 % petroleum based fuel and 20% biofuel made from cooking oil. This mix, it is declared, can cut harmful emissions by 10%.
One actually motivating advancement has been the move far from biofuels which complete head on with food consumers thus avoiding a cost spiral. Not so long earlier, a surge in usage of biofuels in automobiles caused a spike in maize rates as US farmers diverted too much corn to fuel processing.
Hopefully in the future, airline companies and drivers will focus biofuel usage on non-food sources such as jatropha curcas and algae. It would be a mixed blessing indeed if some individuals wound up starving simply to satisfy another person's green credentials.
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Airlines Concentrate On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
Emely Bevins edited this page 1 week ago