It's bad enough for some propeller planes to be referred to as being powered by elastic band. Now the skeptics could start having a dig at industrial aircraft flying on whatever from cooking oil to liquefied algae.
With the civil aviation market under increasing pressure from rising oil costs and ecological legislation, the race is on to find feasible alternatives to conventional kerosene and these up until now seem to boil down to various kinds 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 minimal 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 poor for growing mainstream foodstuffs.
Jatropha is a genus of roughly 175 succulent plants, shrubs and trees (some are deciduous, like Jatropha curcas), from the family Euphorbiaceae.
In 2007 Goldman Sachs cited Jatropha curcas as one of the very best prospects for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to drought and insects, and produces seeds including 27-40% oil.
Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aerial major Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation relocated to carry out research study and development into the use of biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airline Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would act as tactical consultants for the task.
The most recent airline to begin explore brand-new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has actually performed internal US flights using a blend of 80 % petroleum based fuel and 20% biofuel made from cooking oil. This mixture, it is claimed, can cut hazardous emissions by 10%.
One actually encouraging advancement has actually been the relocation away from biofuels which complete head on with food consumers thereby avoiding a rate spiral. Not so long earlier, a rise in usage of biofuels in vehicles triggered a spike in maize prices as US farmers diverted excessive corn to fuel processing.
Hopefully in the future, airline companies 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 people ended up starving just to satisfy somebody else's green credentials.
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Airlines Focus On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
franziskao0223 edited this page 2025-01-18 13:31:23 +06:00