1 Airlines Concentrate On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum

Georgiana Couch edited this page 8 months ago

It's bad enough for some propeller aircrafts to be referred to as being powered by rubber bands. Now the cynics might begin having a dig at industrial airplane flying on everything from cooking oil to liquefied algae.

With the civil aviation industry under increasing pressure from increasing oil costs and ecological legislation, the race is on to find practical options to traditional kerosene and these so far appear to come down to numerous kinds of biofuel.

Not remarkably, the very first trials of alternative fuel were started by British air travel leader, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic started London to Amsterdam flights with minimal biofuel usage in 2008. This was quickly 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 curcas which can grow in soil thought about too bad for growing mainstream foods items.

Jatropha is a genus of around 175 succulent plants, shrubs and trees (some are deciduous, like Jatropha curcas), from the family Euphorbiaceae.

In 2007 Goldman Sachs cited Jatropha jatropha curcas as one of the finest prospects for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to dry spell and bugs, and produces seeds consisting of 27-40% oil.

Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aerial significant Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation transferred to perform research and advancement into the usage of biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airline companies Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would function as tactical specialists for the job.

The current airline company to start experimenting with new fuels is the Group which has conducted internal US flights utilizing a blend of 80 % petroleum based fuel and 20% biofuel made from cooking oil. This mix, it is declared, can cut damaging emissions by 10%.

One really motivating development has been the move away from biofuels which contend head on with food customers thereby preventing a price spiral. Not so long ago, a surge in use 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 motorists will focus biofuel consumption on non-food sources such as jatropha curcas and algae. It would be a combined blessing indeed if some people ended up starving simply to satisfy someone else's green credentials.