It's bad enough for some prop planes to be referred to as being powered by elastic band. Now the cynics might begin having a dig at commercial airplane flying on everything from cooking oil to liquefied algae.
With the civil air travel industry under increasing pressure from increasing oil prices and ecological legislation, the race is on to find viable options to traditional kerosene and these up until now seem to boil down to numerous kinds of biofuel.
Not surprisingly, the very first trials of alternative fuel were started by British aviation pioneer, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic began London to Amsterdam flights with restricted biofuel usage in 2008. This was rapidly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each utilized various blends of regular fuel and bio derivatives including some from made from jatropha curcas which can grow in soil considered too bad for growing mainstream foods items.
Jatropha is a genus of roughly 175 succulent plants, shrubs and trees (some are deciduous, like Jatropha curcas), from the household Euphorbiaceae.
In 2007 Goldman Sachs pointed out Jatropha jatropha curcas as one of the best candidates for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to dry spell and insects, and produces seeds containing 27-40% oil.
Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aerial major Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation transferred to bring out research and advancement into making use of biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airlines Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would function as tactical consultants for the job.
The current airline to begin try out new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has actually carried out internal US flights using a mix of 80 % petroleum based fuel and 20% biofuel made from cooking oil. This mixture, it is claimed, can cut harmful emissions by 10%.
One truly encouraging development has actually been the relocation away from biofuels which complete head on with food consumers thus preventing a rate spiral. Not so long ago, a rise in usage of biofuels in cars caused a spike in maize prices 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 blended true blessing certainly if some individuals wound up starving simply to satisfy somebody else's green .
1
Airlines Concentrate On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
Isidro Garvin edited this page 2025-01-12 13:11:08 +08:00