Airlines Concentrate On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum

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It's bad enough for some prop planes to be referred to as being powered by rubber bands.

It's bad enough for some prop planes to be described as being powered by elastic band. Now the skeptics could begin having a dig at industrial airplane flying on whatever from cooking oil to melted algae.


With the civil aviation industry under increasing pressure from increasing oil rates and ecological legislation, the race is on to discover practical options to traditional kerosene and these up until now appear to come down to various types of biofuel.


Not surprisingly, 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 minimal biofuel usage in 2008. This was quickly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each used different 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.


jatropha curcas 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 mentioned Jatropha jatropha curcas as one of the best candidates for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to drought and bugs, and produces seeds containing 27-40% oil.


Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aeronautical major Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation moved to carry out research study and development into the use of biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airline companies Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would function as tactical experts for the task.


The most recent airline to begin explore brand-new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has actually performed internal US flights utilizing a mix 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 motivating advancement has been the move away from biofuels which compete head on with food consumers therefore preventing a price spiral. Not so long back, a surge in use of biofuels in vehicles caused a spike in maize costs as US farmers diverted excessive 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 true blessing certainly if some individuals wound up starving just to please somebody else's green credentials.

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