It's bad enough for some prop planes to be referred to as being powered by elastic band. Now the cynics could start having a dig at business aircraft flying on everything from cooking oil to melted algae.
With the civil air travel market under increasing pressure from increasing oil prices and ecological legislation, the race is on to discover practical alternatives to traditional kerosene and these so far seem to boil down to different types of biofuel.
Not surprisingly, the very first trials of alternative fuel were started by British aviation pioneer, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic began London to Amsterdam flights with limited biofuel usage in 2008. This was rapidly 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 bad for growing mainstream foods.
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 mentioned Jatropha jatropha curcas as one of the very best prospects for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to dry spell 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 moved to perform research study and advancement into using biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airline companies Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would act as strategic experts for the project.
The newest airline company to begin explore brand-new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has carried out internal US flights using a blend of 80 % fuel and 20% biofuel made from cooking oil. This mixture, it is claimed, can cut hazardous emissions by 10%.
One actually encouraging advancement has been the move far from biofuels which compete head on with food customers therefore avoiding a rate spiral. Not so long back, a surge in use of biofuels in automobiles caused a spike in maize prices as US farmers diverted excessive corn to fuel processing.
Hopefully in the future, airline companies and motorists will focus biofuel usage on non-food sources such as jatropha and algae. It would be a blended true blessing undoubtedly if some people ended up starving just to satisfy another person's green credentials.
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Airlines Focus On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
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