It's bad enough for some propeller planes to be referred to as being powered by rubber bands. Now the cynics could start having a dig at industrial airplane flying on everything from cooking oil to liquefied algae.
With the civil aviation market under increasing pressure from increasing oil prices and environmental legislation, the race is on to discover viable options to traditional kerosene and these up until now seem to come down to numerous kinds of biofuel.
Not surprisingly, the 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 use in 2008. This was rapidly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each used different blends of routine fuel and bio derivatives consisting of some from made from jatropha 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 jatropha curcas), from the household Euphorbiaceae.
In 2007 Goldman Sachs cited Jatropha curcas as one of the very best prospects for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to drought and insects, and produces seeds consisting of 27-40% oil.
Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aeronautical significant Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation relocated to perform research and development into using biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airlines Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would act as strategic consultants for the job.
The current airline to begin experimenting with brand-new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has actually conducted internal US flights utilizing a mix of 80 % petroleum based fuel and 20% biofuel made from cooking oil. This mixture, it is claimed, can cut damaging emissions by 10%.
One truly encouraging advancement has actually been the relocation away from which complete head on with food customers therefore avoiding a cost spiral. Not so long earlier, a rise in use of biofuels in vehicles caused a spike in maize rates as US farmers diverted excessive corn to fuel processing.
Hopefully in the future, airlines and drivers will focus biofuel intake on non-food sources such as jatropha and algae. It would be a blended blessing indeed if some individuals ended up starving just to satisfy another person's green qualifications.
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Airlines Focus On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
mindapowell72 edited this page 2025-01-16 04:39:30 +00:00