It's bad enough for some propeller airplanes to be referred to as being powered by rubber bands. Now the cynics might begin having a dig at business airplane flying on everything from cooking oil to liquefied algae.
With the civil air travel market under increasing pressure from rising oil rates and environmental legislation, the race is on to discover practical options to traditional kerosene and these up until now seem to boil down to different kinds of biofuel.
Not remarkably, the very first trials of alternative fuel were initiated by British aviation leader, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic began London to Amsterdam flights with minimal biofuel usage in 2008. This was rapidly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each utilized various blends of regular fuel and bio derivatives including some from made from jatropha which can grow in soil considered too poor for growing mainstream foods items.
Jatropha is a genus of approximately 175 succulent plants, shrubs and trees (some are deciduous, like Jatropha 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 including 27-40% oil.
Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aeronautical major Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation relocated to bring out research and advancement into making use of biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airline companies Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would function as strategic experts for the project.
The most recent airline to begin explore new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has actually conducted internal US flights utilizing a mix of 80 % petroleum based fuel and 20% biofuel made from cooking oil. This mixture, it is declared, can cut harmful emissions by 10%.
One actually motivating development has actually been the relocation far from biofuels which complete head on with food customers thus avoiding a cost spiral. Not so long earlier, a surge in usage of biofuels in cars caused a spike in maize costs 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 undoubtedly if some people ended up starving just to satisfy another person's green qualifications.
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Airlines Focus On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
karrimileham9 edited this page 2025-01-18 06:17:25 +01:00