It's bad enough for some prop aircrafts to be referred to as being powered by elastic band. Now the skeptics could begin having a dig at industrial aircraft flying on everything from cooking oil to melted algae.
With the civil aviation industry under increasing pressure from rising oil rates and environmental legislation, the race is on to find practical alternatives to standard kerosene and these so far seem to come down to various types of biofuel.
Not surprisingly, the first trials of alternative fuel were started by British air travel leader, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic began London to Amsterdam flights with restricted biofuel usage in 2008. This was rapidly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each used various blends of regular fuel and bio derivatives consisting of some from made from jatropha curcas which can grow in soil considered too poor for growing mainstream foods.
Jatropha is a genus of roughly 175 succulent plants, shrubs and trees (some are deciduous, like Jatropha curcas), from the household Euphorbiaceae.
In 2007 Goldman Sachs mentioned Jatropha curcas as one of the very best candidates for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to dry spell 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 using biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airlines Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would function as strategic specialists for the job.
The most current airline company to start explore new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has actually carried out internal US flights using 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 advancement has actually been the relocation far from biofuels which complete head on with food consumers thereby avoiding a price spiral. Not so long earlier, a surge in use of biofuels in vehicles caused a spike in maize prices as US farmers diverted excessive corn to fuel processing.
Hopefully in the future, airline companies and drivers will focus biofuel usage on non-food sources such as jatropha and algae. It would be a mixed true blessing undoubtedly if some individuals ended up to please somebody else's green credentials.
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Airlines Concentrate On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
larastace69886 edited this page 2025-01-18 11:49:53 +01:00