Airlines Focus On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum
It’s bad enough for some propeller airplanes to be described as being powered by rubber bands. Now the cynics could begin having a dig at business airplane flying on everything from cooking oil to melted algae.
With the civil air travel industry under increasing pressure from rising oil prices and environmental legislation, the race is on to discover feasible options to standard kerosene and these so far seem to come down to various types of biofuel.
Not remarkably, the first trials of alternative fuel were initiated by British aviation pioneer, Sir Richard Branson, whose began London to Amsterdam flights with minimal biofuel use in 2008. This was rapidly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each utilized different blends of routine fuel and bio derivatives including some from made from jatropha which can grow in soil considered too poor for growing mainstream foodstuffs.
Jatropha is a genus of around 175 succulent plants, shrubs and trees (some are deciduous, like Jatropha curcas), from the household Euphorbiaceae.
In 2007 Goldman Sachs cited Jatropha curcas as one of the very best prospects for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to dry spell and insects, 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 moved to bring out research and development 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 job.
The current airline company to begin experimenting with new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has actually performed 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 harmful emissions by 10%.
One actually encouraging development has been the move far from biofuels which contend head on with food customers thereby preventing a cost spiral. Not so long back, a surge in use of biofuels in automobiles triggered a spike in maize rates as US farmers diverted too much corn to fuel processing.
Hopefully in the future, airlines and vehicle drivers will focus biofuel consumption on non-food sources such as jatropha and algae. It would be a combined blessing indeed if some individuals ended up starving just to satisfy somebody else’s green qualifications.
