It's bad enough for some propeller aircrafts to be explained as being powered by rubber bands. Now the skeptics could begin having a dig at commercial aircraft flying on everything from cooking oil to liquefied algae.
With the civil aviation industry under increasing pressure from rising oil prices and environmental legislation, the race is on to discover feasible options to traditional kerosene and these up until now appear to come down to numerous types of biofuel.
Not surprisingly, 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 minimal 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 poor 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 family Euphorbiaceae.
In 2007 Goldman Sachs pointed out Jatropha curcas as one of the very best prospects 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 aerial major Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation moved to perform research and development into the use of biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airline companies Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would serve as strategic experts for the project.
The most recent airline to start try out brand-new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has actually performed internal US flights using a mix of 80 % petroleum based fuel and 20% biofuel made from cooking oil. This mix, it is claimed, can cut hazardous emissions by 10%.
One truly encouraging development has been the relocation far from biofuels which contend head on with food customers therefore avoiding a price spiral. Not so long back, a rise in usage of biofuels in cars caused a spike in maize rates as US farmers diverted too much corn to fuel processing.
Hopefully in the future, airline companies and will focus biofuel intake on non-food sources such as jatropha curcas and algae. It would be a combined blessing indeed if some people ended up starving simply to please another person's green credentials.
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Airlines Concentrate On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
Ona Sprouse edited this page 2025-01-12 06:15:01 +08:00