It's bad enough for some propeller airplanes to be referred to as being powered by elastic band. Now the cynics could start having a dig at commercial airplane flying on everything from cooking oil to melted algae.
With the civil air travel market under increasing pressure from increasing oil rates and environmental legislation, the race is on to find viable options to traditional kerosene and these up until now appear to boil down to numerous kinds of biofuel.
Not remarkably, the first trials of alternative fuel were started by British aviation pioneer, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic started London to Amsterdam flights with limited biofuel use in 2008. This was rapidly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each used different blends of regular fuel and bio derivatives including some from made from jatropha which can grow in soil considered too bad for growing mainstream foodstuffs.
jatropha curcas 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 pointed out Jatropha curcas as one of the finest prospects for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to drought and bugs, and produces seeds including 27-40% oil.
Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aeronautical significant Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation transferred to perform research and development into making use of biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airline companies Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would serve as tactical consultants for the project.
The current airline company to begin explore brand-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 hazardous emissions by 10%.
One truly encouraging development has been the relocation away from biofuels which compete head on with food consumers consequently preventing a rate spiral. Not so long earlier, a rise in use of biofuels in cars triggered a spike in maize costs as US farmers diverted too much corn to fuel processing.
Hopefully in the future, airline companies and motorists will focus biofuel consumption on non-food sources such as jatropha curcas and algae. It would be a combined true blessing indeed if some people ended up starving simply to another person's green qualifications.
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Airlines Concentrate On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
keirataverner5 edited this page 2025-01-11 22:35:24 +00:00