It's bad enough for some prop planes to be explained as being powered by rubber bands. Now the cynics might start having a dig at commercial airplane flying on everything from cooking oil to melted algae.
With the civil aviation under increasing pressure from rising oil prices and environmental legislation, the race is on to find feasible options to standard kerosene and these so far seem to come down to different kinds of biofuel.
Not remarkably, 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 restricted biofuel use in 2008. This was rapidly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each utilized different blends of regular fuel and bio derivatives including some from made from jatropha curcas which can grow in soil considered too poor for growing mainstream foods.
Jatropha is a genus of roughly 175 succulent plants, shrubs and trees (some are deciduous, like Jatropha curcas), from the household Euphorbiaceae.
In 2007 Goldman Sachs cited Jatropha jatropha curcas as one of the finest 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 aerial significant Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation transferred to bring out research and advancement into using biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airlines Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would act as tactical experts for the project.
The current airline company to start exploring with brand-new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has carried out 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 actually encouraging advancement has actually been the relocation far from biofuels which compete head on with food consumers thereby avoiding a rate spiral. Not so long ago, a rise in usage of biofuels in vehicles caused a spike in maize rates as US farmers diverted excessive corn to fuel processing.
Hopefully in the future, airline companies and vehicle drivers will focus biofuel consumption on non-food sources such as jatropha and algae. It would be a mixed true blessing certainly if some people ended up starving simply to satisfy somebody else's green credentials.
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Airlines Concentrate On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
Demetria Spahn edited this page 7 days ago