It's bad enough for some prop airplanes to be referred to as being powered by rubber bands. Now the skeptics could begin having a dig at commercial aircraft flying on whatever 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 find practical alternatives to standard kerosene and these so far appear to come down to numerous kinds of biofuel.
Not remarkably, the very first trials of alternative fuel were initiated by British air travel pioneer, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic started London to Amsterdam flights with restricted biofuel usage in 2008. This was quickly followed by and Air New Zealand who each used various blends of regular fuel and bio derivatives including some from made from jatropha 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 curcas as one of the finest prospects for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to drought and bugs, and produces seeds containing 27-40% oil.
Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aeronautical significant Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation transferred to bring out research and advancement into using biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airlines Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would act as tactical specialists for the project.
The most recent airline to begin exploring with new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has performed internal US flights using a mix of 80 % petroleum based fuel and 20% biofuel made from cooking oil. This mix, it is declared, can cut hazardous emissions by 10%.
One truly encouraging advancement has actually been the relocation far from biofuels which compete head on with food consumers thereby avoiding a cost spiral. Not so long ago, a rise in usage of biofuels in vehicles caused a spike in maize rates as US farmers diverted excessive corn to fuel processing.
Hopefully in the future, airlines and vehicle drivers will focus biofuel intake on non-food sources such as jatropha and algae. It would be a blended blessing indeed if some people ended up starving simply to please somebody else's green qualifications.
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Airlines Concentrate On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
taniacenteno81 edited this page 2025-01-12 13:42:12 +08:00