It's bad enough for some prop aircrafts to be explained as being powered by elastic band. Now the cynics could begin having a dig at industrial airplane flying on whatever from cooking oil to liquefied algae.
With the civil air travel market under increasing pressure from rising oil rates and environmental legislation, the race is on to find viable options to standard kerosene and these so far seem to come down to numerous kinds of biofuel.
Not remarkably, the first trials of alternative fuel were initiated by British aviation pioneer, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic started London to Amsterdam flights with minimal biofuel use in 2008. This was rapidly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each used different 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.
jatropha curcas is a genus of roughly 175 succulent plants, shrubs and trees (some are deciduous, like Jatropha jatropha curcas), from the family Euphorbiaceae.
In 2007 Goldman Sachs mentioned Jatropha curcas as one of the very best candidates for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to dry spell and insects, and produces seeds consisting of 27-40% oil.
Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aeronautical major Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation relocated to perform research and development into the use of biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airlines Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would act as tactical experts for the task.
The most current airline to start explore brand-new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has performed internal US flights using a blend 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 encouraging advancement has actually been the move away from biofuels which contend head on with food customers thus preventing a cost spiral. Not so long back, a rise in usage of biofuels in cars and trucks caused a spike in maize costs as US farmers diverted too much corn to fuel processing.
Hopefully in the future, airline companies and drivers will focus biofuel intake on non-food sources such as jatropha curcas and algae. It would be a certainly if some individuals wound up starving just to please someone else's green credentials.
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Airlines Concentrate On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
Carmella Albiston edited this page 2025-01-12 22:51:26 +01:00