It's bad enough for some prop aircrafts to be explained as being powered by elastic band. Now the skeptics might start having a dig at commercial airplane flying on everything from cooking oil to melted algae.
With the civil air travel market under increasing pressure from increasing oil costs and environmental legislation, the race is on to find feasible options to traditional kerosene and these so far seem to come down to different types of biofuel.
Not remarkably, the very first trials of alternative fuel were started by British air travel pioneer, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic started London to Amsterdam flights with restricted biofuel use in 2008. This was rapidly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each utilized various blends of regular fuel and bio derivatives consisting of some from made from jatropha which can grow in soil thought about too bad for growing mainstream foodstuffs.
Jatropha is a genus of around 175 succulent plants, shrubs and trees (some are deciduous, like Jatropha curcas), from the household Euphorbiaceae.
In 2007 Goldman Sachs cited Jatropha curcas as one of the finest prospects for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to drought and pests, and produces seeds consisting of 27-40% oil.
Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aeronautical significant Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation transferred to bring out research and development into using biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airlines Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would act as tactical consultants for the job.
The current airline to begin exploring with brand-new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has performed internal US flights utilizing a mix of 80 % fuel and 20% biofuel made from cooking oil. This mix, it is declared, can cut harmful emissions by 10%.
One truly encouraging development has been the relocation far from biofuels which compete head on with food consumers thus preventing a price spiral. Not so long back, a rise in usage of biofuels in cars and trucks caused a spike in maize rates 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 and algae. It would be a mixed true blessing indeed if some individuals ended up starving just to satisfy another person's green credentials.
1
Airlines Concentrate On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
keeshaatkinson edited this page 2025-01-12 15:40:52 +08:00