It's bad enough for some prop aircrafts to be explained as being powered by elastic band. Now the skeptics could begin having a dig at business airplane flying on whatever from cooking oil to liquefied algae.
With the civil air travel industry under increasing pressure from increasing oil rates and environmental legislation, the race is on to find feasible options to traditional kerosene and these so far appear to come down to numerous types of biofuel.
Not remarkably, the very first trials of alternative fuel were initiated by British air travel leader, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic started London to Amsterdam flights with limited biofuel use in 2008. This was rapidly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each used various blends of and bio derivatives including some from made from jatropha which can grow in soil considered too poor for growing mainstream foods.
Jatropha is a genus of approximately 175 succulent plants, shrubs and trees (some are deciduous, like Jatropha jatropha curcas), from the family Euphorbiaceae.
In 2007 Goldman Sachs cited Jatropha curcas as one of the best candidates for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to dry spell and pests, and produces seeds consisting of 27-40% oil.
Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aerial major Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation moved to perform research study and advancement into the use of biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airline companies Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would serve as strategic specialists for the project.
The most recent airline company to start experimenting with brand-new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has carried out 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 hazardous emissions by 10%.
One truly motivating advancement has actually been the move away from biofuels which complete head on with food customers therefore avoiding a cost spiral. Not so long earlier, 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, airlines and vehicle drivers will focus biofuel usage on non-food sources such as jatropha and algae. It would be a combined blessing undoubtedly if some individuals wound up starving just to please another person's green credentials.
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Airlines Concentrate On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
Rosalind Kraft edited this page 2025-01-12 07:38:36 +08:00