It's bad enough for some propeller airplanes to be referred to as being powered by elastic band. Now the cynics might start having a dig at commercial aircraft flying on everything from cooking oil to melted algae.
With the civil air travel industry under increasing pressure from rising oil costs and environmental legislation, the race is on to discover practical options to traditional kerosene and these up until now seem to boil down to various kinds of biofuel.
Not surprisingly, the very first trials of alternative fuel were started by British air travel pioneer, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic started London to Amsterdam flights with restricted biofuel usage in 2008. This was rapidly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each utilized various 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 roughly 175 succulent plants, shrubs and trees (some are deciduous, like Jatropha curcas), from the family Euphorbiaceae.
In 2007 Goldman Sachs pointed out Jatropha jatropha curcas as one of the finest candidates for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to drought and pests, and produces seeds containing 27-40% oil.
Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aeronautical major Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation relocated to carry out 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 consultants for the job.
The most current airline to begin try out new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has performed internal US a blend of 80 % petroleum based fuel and 20% biofuel made from cooking oil. This mixture, it is claimed, can cut harmful emissions by 10%.
One truly encouraging advancement has actually been the relocation away from biofuels which contend head on with food consumers thus preventing a cost spiral. Not so long ago, a rise in use of biofuels in automobiles caused a spike in maize rates as US farmers diverted too much corn to fuel processing.
Hopefully in the future, airlines and motorists will focus biofuel usage on non-food sources such as jatropha and algae. It would be a combined blessing indeed if some individuals wound up starving just to please somebody else's green credentials.
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Airlines Concentrate On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
mauricioledger edited this page 2025-01-12 01:10:17 +01:00