Airlines Concentrate On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum

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It's bad enough for some propeller planes to be described as being powered by rubber bands. Now the skeptics could start having a dig at business airplane flying on whatever from cooking oil to liquefied algae.


With the civil aviation market under increasing pressure from rising oil costs and environmental legislation, the race is on to find practical options to traditional kerosene and these so far seem to boil down to different types of biofuel.


Not surprisingly, 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 minimal biofuel use in 2008. This was quickly 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 curcas which can grow in soil thought about too poor for growing mainstream foods items.


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 best prospects for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to drought and insects, 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 perform research study and advancement into making use of biofuels to power jet . It was reported that Brazilian airlines Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would serve as tactical consultants for the job.


The latest airline to begin exploring with brand-new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has actually carried out 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 damaging emissions by 10%.


One really encouraging development 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 surge in use of biofuels in cars triggered 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 usage on non-food sources such as jatropha curcas and algae. It would be a mixed blessing certainly if some individuals ended up starving simply to satisfy another person's green credentials.

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