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 start having a dig at industrial airplane flying on everything from cooking oil to melted algae.

With the civil aviation market under increasing pressure from rising oil rates and ecological legislation, the race is on to find feasible options to standard kerosene and these up until now appear to come down to numerous types of biofuel.

Not remarkably, the first trials of alternative fuel were initiated by British aviation pioneer, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic started London to Amsterdam flights with limited biofuel usage in 2008. This was quickly 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 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 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 dry spell and insects, and produces seeds containing 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 advancement into the use of biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airline companies Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would serve as strategic specialists for the job.

The current airline company to begin explore brand-new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has carried out internal US flights using 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 truly motivating development has actually been the away from biofuels which compete head on with food consumers therefore avoiding a price spiral. Not so long ago, a surge in use of biofuels in cars caused a spike in maize prices as US farmers diverted excessive corn to fuel processing.

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