It's bad enough for some propeller planes to be described as being powered by rubber bands. Now the skeptics could begin having a dig at commercial airplane flying on everything from cooking oil to liquefied algae.
With the civil air travel market under increasing pressure from rising oil prices and ecological legislation, the race is on to discover practical alternatives to conventional kerosene and these so far seem to boil down to various types of biofuel.
Not surprisingly, the first trials of alternative fuel were initiated by British aviation pioneer, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic started London to Amsterdam flights with restricted biofuel usage in 2008. This was rapidly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each utilized different blends of regular fuel and bio derivatives including some from made from jatropha which can grow in soil considered too bad for growing mainstream foods.
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 curcas as one of the finest candidates for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to drought and bugs, and produces seeds consisting of 27-40% oil.
Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aerial major Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Foundation moved to carry 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 strategic experts for the project.
The current airline to start explore new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has performed 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 harmful emissions by 10%.
One really motivating advancement has been the relocation far from biofuels which compete head on with food consumers consequently avoiding a cost spiral. Not so long earlier, a surge in use of biofuels in automobiles triggered 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 intake on non-food sources such as jatropha curcas and algae. It would be a mixed blessing certainly if some people wound up starving simply to satisfy somebody else's green qualifications.
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Airlines Focus On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
debbiemckellar edited this page 2025-01-12 15:57:10 +08:00