1 Airlines Concentrate On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum

Sean Gawler edited this page 15 hours ago

It's bad enough for some propeller planes to be referred to as being powered by elastic band. Now the cynics might start having a dig at commercial aircraft flying on everything from cooking oil to melted algae.

With the civil aviation industry under increasing pressure from increasing oil rates and environmental legislation, the race is on to discover feasible alternatives to conventional kerosene and these so far appear to boil down to various types of biofuel.

Not surprisingly, the first trials of alternative fuel were started by British air travel pioneer, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic started London to Amsterdam flights with limited biofuel usage in 2008. This was rapidly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each utilized different blends of routine fuel and bio derivatives consisting of some from made from jatropha which can grow in soil thought about too bad for growing mainstream foods.

jatropha curcas 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 best prospects 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 relocated to perform research study and advancement into making use of biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airlines Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would act as tactical consultants for the task.

The most recent airline to start try out new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has conducted internal US flights using a mix of 80 % petroleum based fuel and 20% biofuel made from cooking oil. This mix, it is claimed, can cut damaging emissions by 10%.

One actually motivating advancement has been the move far from biofuels which complete head on with food consumers thus avoiding a rate spiral. Not so long earlier, a rise in use of biofuels in cars and trucks caused a spike in maize prices 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 curcas and algae. It would be a blended true blessing certainly if some people ended up starving just to satisfy somebody qualifications.