It's bad enough for some propeller airplanes to be referred to as being powered by elastic band. Now the cynics could start having a dig at business airplane flying on whatever from cooking oil to liquefied algae.
With the civil air travel market under increasing pressure from rising oil prices and environmental legislation, the race is on to discover viable alternatives to standard kerosene and these up until now appear to come down to various types of biofuel.
Not remarkably, 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 restricted biofuel use in 2008. This was quickly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each utilized various blends of regular fuel and bio derivatives including some from made from jatropha which can grow in soil considered too bad for growing mainstream foods items.
jatropha curcas is a genus of around 175 succulent plants, shrubs and trees (some are deciduous, like Jatropha curcas), from the household Euphorbiaceae.
In 2007 Goldman Sachs mentioned Jatropha curcas as one of the very best prospects for future biodiesel . It is resistant to dry spell and pests, and produces seeds including 27-40% oil.
Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aeronautical significant Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation transferred to perform research study and development into making use of biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airline companies Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would serve as tactical consultants for the task.
The newest airline to start exploring with 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 mix, it is claimed, can cut harmful emissions by 10%.
One actually motivating development has actually been the move away from biofuels which complete head on with food customers thereby avoiding a rate spiral. Not so long earlier, a rise in use of biofuels in automobiles caused a spike in maize rates as US farmers diverted too much corn to fuel processing.
Hopefully in the future, airline companies and motorists will focus biofuel usage on non-food sources such as jatropha and algae. It would be a combined true blessing certainly if some individuals ended up starving just to please somebody else's green credentials.
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Airlines Concentrate On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
robbywemyss832 edited this page 2025-01-12 16:45:33 +08:00