It's bad enough for some propeller planes to be referred to as being powered by elastic band. Now the cynics could begin having a dig at commercial airplane flying on whatever from cooking oil to melted algae.
With the civil air travel industry under increasing pressure from increasing oil prices and ecological legislation, the race is on to find feasible alternatives to conventional kerosene and these up until now seem to come down to different types of biofuel.
Not remarkably, the very first trials of alternative fuel were started by British aviation 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 utilized different blends of regular fuel and bio derivatives including some from made from jatropha which can grow in soil considered too bad for growing mainstream foods items.
jatropha curcas 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 prospects for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to drought 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 transferred to perform research and development into making use of biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airlines Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would serve as tactical consultants for the task.
The latest airline company to begin exploring with new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has carried out internal US flights utilizing a blend of 80 % petroleum based fuel and 20% biofuel made from cooking oil. This mix, it is claimed, can cut damaging emissions by 10%.
One really encouraging advancement has been the move far from biofuels which compete head on with food customers thereby preventing a . Not so long earlier, a rise in usage of biofuels in cars and trucks triggered a spike in maize costs as US farmers diverted excessive corn to fuel processing.
Hopefully in the future, airline companies and vehicle drivers will focus biofuel intake on non-food sources such as jatropha and algae. It would be a blended blessing certainly if some people wound up starving simply to please somebody else's green credentials.
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Airlines Concentrate On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
Connor Ahuia Ova edited this page 2025-01-18 14:29:24 +08:00