It's bad enough for some prop aircrafts to be explained as being powered by rubber bands. Now the cynics might start having a dig at commercial aircraft flying on everything from cooking oil to liquefied algae.
With the civil aviation market under increasing pressure from increasing oil costs and ecological legislation, the race is on to discover feasible alternatives to conventional kerosene and these so far appear to boil down to various kinds of biofuel.
Not surprisingly, the first trials of alternative fuel were started by British aviation pioneer, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic began London to Amsterdam flights with minimal biofuel usage in 2008. This was rapidly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each utilized different blends of routine fuel and bio derivatives including some from made from jatropha curcas which can grow in soil considered too poor for growing mainstream foodstuffs.
Jatropha is a genus of approximately 175 succulent plants, shrubs and trees (some are deciduous, like Jatropha curcas), from the family Euphorbiaceae.
In 2007 Goldman Jatropha curcas as one of the best prospects for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to dry spell and bugs, and produces seeds including 27-40% oil.
Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aeronautical significant Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation moved to carry out research and advancement into using biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airlines Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would serve as strategic specialists for the task.
The most recent airline to begin explore brand-new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has actually conducted internal US flights utilizing a mix of 80 % petroleum based fuel and 20% biofuel made from cooking oil. This mix, it is declared, can cut hazardous emissions by 10%.
One truly encouraging advancement has been the relocation far from biofuels which compete head on with food customers thereby avoiding a cost spiral. Not so long back, a rise in usage of biofuels in automobiles triggered a spike in maize rates as US farmers diverted too much corn to fuel processing.
Hopefully in the future, airlines and vehicle drivers will focus biofuel intake on non-food sources such as jatropha and algae. It would be a blended true blessing certainly if some individuals wound up starving just to satisfy somebody else's green credentials.
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Airlines Focus On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
Millard Burroughs edited this page 7 hours ago