It's bad enough for some propeller airplanes to be described as being powered by elastic band. Now the skeptics might begin having a dig at commercial airplane flying on everything from cooking oil to melted algae.
With the civil air travel market under increasing pressure from rising oil rates and environmental legislation, the race is on to discover practical alternatives to conventional kerosene and these so far appear to boil down to numerous kinds of biofuel.
Not surprisingly, the very first trials of alternative fuel were initiated by British aviation pioneer, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic began London to Amsterdam flights with limited 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 including some from made from jatropha curcas which can grow in soil thought about too poor for growing mainstream foods items.
Jatropha is a genus of roughly 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 drought and pests, and produces seeds consisting of 27-40% oil.
Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aerial major Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation moved to carry out research study and advancement into making use of biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airlines Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would serve as strategic experts for the task.
The latest airline company to begin with new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has carried out 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 harmful emissions by 10%.
One really motivating development has been the relocation far from biofuels which compete head on with food consumers thereby avoiding a cost spiral. Not so long earlier, a rise in usage of biofuels in vehicles triggered a spike in maize prices as US farmers diverted too much corn to fuel processing.
Hopefully in the future, airlines and motorists will focus biofuel usage on non-food sources such as jatropha curcas and algae. It would be a blended true blessing certainly if some people ended up starving just to please another person's green credentials.
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Airlines Focus On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
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