It's bad enough for some to be referred to as being powered by elastic band. Now the skeptics might begin having a dig at commercial airplane flying on whatever from cooking oil to melted algae.
With the civil air travel market under increasing pressure from increasing oil prices and ecological legislation, the race is on to find viable options to conventional kerosene and these so far seem to come down to different kinds of biofuel.
Not remarkably, the first trials of alternative fuel were initiated by British air travel pioneer, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic began London to Amsterdam flights with restricted biofuel usage in 2008. This was quickly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each used various blends of regular fuel and bio derivatives consisting of some from made from jatropha curcas which can grow in soil considered too bad for growing mainstream foodstuffs.
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 cited Jatropha curcas as one of the very best candidates for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to dry spell and pests, and produces seeds containing 27-40% oil.
Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aeronautical major Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation relocated to bring out research 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 experts for the project.
The current airline company to begin try out 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 mixture, it is declared, can cut hazardous emissions by 10%.
One actually encouraging development has been the relocation far from biofuels which contend head on with food consumers thereby avoiding a cost spiral. Not so long back, a rise in use of biofuels in vehicles triggered a spike in maize costs as US farmers diverted excessive corn to fuel processing.
Hopefully in the future, airlines and vehicle drivers will focus biofuel consumption on non-food sources such as jatropha curcas and algae. It would be a mixed blessing certainly if some people wound up starving just to please another person's green credentials.
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Airlines Focus On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
Hollis Bodin edited this page 2025-01-12 10:55:02 +08:00