It's bad enough for some prop planes to be explained as being powered by . Now the skeptics could start having a dig at industrial airplane flying on everything from cooking oil to liquefied algae.
With the civil air travel industry under increasing pressure from increasing oil rates and ecological legislation, the race is on to discover practical options to traditional kerosene and these up until now seem to boil down to different kinds of biofuel.
Not surprisingly, the first trials of alternative fuel were started by British aviation leader, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic started London to Amsterdam flights with minimal biofuel usage in 2008. This was quickly 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 poor for growing mainstream foods.
jatropha curcas is a genus of around 175 succulent plants, shrubs and trees (some are deciduous, like Jatropha jatropha curcas), from the family Euphorbiaceae.
In 2007 Goldman Sachs cited Jatropha jatropha curcas as one of the finest prospects for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to dry spell and bugs, and produces seeds containing 27-40% oil.
Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aeronautical major Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation transferred to bring out research study and development into using biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airline companies Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would function as tactical consultants for the task.
The most recent airline company to start try out brand-new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has carried out internal US flights using a blend of 80 % petroleum based fuel and 20% biofuel made from cooking oil. This mix, it is claimed, can cut harmful emissions by 10%.
One really motivating development has actually been the move away from biofuels which contend head on with food consumers consequently avoiding a price spiral. Not so long back, a rise in usage of biofuels in automobiles triggered a spike in maize costs as US farmers diverted too much corn to fuel processing.
Hopefully in the future, airlines and drivers will focus biofuel usage on non-food sources such as jatropha and algae. It would be a mixed blessing undoubtedly if some people ended up starving just to satisfy another person's green qualifications.
1
Airlines Concentrate On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
marylynbadgett edited this page 2025-01-18 15:45:39 +00:00