Airlines Focus On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum

It's bad enough for some propeller aircrafts to be described as being powered by elastic band. Now the cynics might begin having a dig at industrial aircraft flying on everything from cooking oil to liquefied algae.


With the civil aviation industry under increasing pressure from rising oil costs and environmental legislation, the race is on to find practical alternatives to conventional kerosene and these so far appear to boil down to various kinds of biofuel.


Not remarkably, the very first trials of alternative fuel were initiated by British air travel leader, 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 different blends of routine fuel and bio derivatives consisting of some from made from jatropha which can grow in soil considered 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 very best prospects for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to drought and bugs, and produces seeds consisting of 27-40% oil.


Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aerial significant Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation moved to perform research study and advancement into using biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airline companies Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would function as strategic experts for the task.


The current airline company to start try out brand-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 mix, it is declared, can cut harmful emissions by 10%.


One actually encouraging development has actually been the relocation away from which contend head on with food customers thereby preventing a price spiral. Not so long earlier, a surge in use of biofuels in cars caused a spike in maize prices as US farmers diverted too much corn to fuel processing.


Hopefully in the future, airlines and drivers will focus biofuel usage on non-food sources such as jatropha and algae. It would be a combined true blessing undoubtedly if some people wound up starving just to satisfy somebody else's green qualifications.