It's bad enough for some to be described as being powered by rubber bands. Now the cynics might start having a dig at commercial aircraft flying on whatever from cooking oil to liquefied algae.
With the civil air travel market under increasing pressure from increasing oil costs and environmental legislation, the race is on to find practical options to conventional kerosene and these so far seem to boil down to numerous types of biofuel.
Not remarkably, the first trials of alternative fuel were initiated by British air travel 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 various blends of routine fuel and bio derivatives consisting of some from made from jatropha curcas which can grow in soil considered too poor for growing mainstream foods.
Jatropha 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 mentioned Jatropha curcas as one of the best candidates for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to dry spell 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 relocated to carry out 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 specialists for the job.
The most recent airline to begin 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 encouraging advancement has been the relocation away from biofuels which compete head on with food consumers consequently preventing a cost spiral. Not so long earlier, a surge in usage of biofuels in cars and trucks triggered a spike in maize prices as US farmers diverted too much corn to fuel processing.
Hopefully in the future, airlines and drivers will focus biofuel consumption on non-food sources such as jatropha curcas and algae. It would be a mixed blessing indeed if some people wound up starving just to satisfy someone else's green qualifications.
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Airlines Concentrate On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
Marisol Cable edited this page 2025-01-18 11:45:07 +01:00