It's bad enough for some propeller aircrafts to be referred to as being powered by rubber bands. Now the skeptics could begin having a dig at commercial airplane flying on everything from cooking oil to melted algae.
With the civil aviation industry under increasing pressure from increasing oil costs and environmental legislation, the race is on to discover practical options to traditional kerosene and these so far appear to come down to different types of biofuel.
Not remarkably, the first trials of alternative fuel were started by British aviation pioneer, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic started London to Amsterdam flights with restricted biofuel usage in 2008. This was quickly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each used different blends of routine fuel and bio derivatives consisting of some from made from jatropha which can grow in soil considered too bad for growing mainstream foodstuffs.
jatropha curcas is a genus of approximately 175 succulent plants, shrubs and trees (some are deciduous, like Jatropha curcas), from the family Euphorbiaceae.
In 2007 Goldman Sachs cited Jatropha jatropha curcas as one of the very best candidates for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to drought and insects, and produces seeds containing 27-40% oil.
Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aeronautical significant Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation moved to bring out research study and advancement into using biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airlines Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would serve as strategic consultants for the task.
The latest airline company to start exploring with brand-new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has actually performed 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 damaging emissions by 10%.
One truly motivating development has actually been the move far from biofuels which contend head on with thereby avoiding a rate spiral. Not so long back, a rise in use of biofuels in automobiles caused a spike in maize rates 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 combined true blessing indeed if some people ended up starving just to please another person's green qualifications.
1
Airlines Focus On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
brennafihelly edited this page 2025-01-18 05:13:07 +00:00