Airlines Focus On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum

It’s bad enough for some propeller aircrafts to be described as being powered by rubber bands. Now the skeptics might begin having a dig at industrial aircraft flying on whatever from cooking oil to liquefied algae.

With the civil aviation market under increasing pressure from increasing oil prices and environmental legislation, the race is on to find viable alternatives to conventional kerosene and these so far seem to come down to different kinds of biofuel.

Not remarkably, the very first trials of alternative fuel were initiated by British aviation pioneer, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic began London to Amsterdam flights with minimal biofuel use in 2008. This was quickly followed by and Air New Zealand who each used different blends of regular fuel and bio derivatives including some from made from jatropha which can grow in soil thought about too bad for growing mainstream foodstuffs.

Jatropha is a genus of approximately 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 very best candidates for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to drought and insects, and produces seeds containing 27-40% oil.

Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aerial significant Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation transferred to bring out research and advancement into making use of biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airlines Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would act as strategic experts for the task.

The latest airline to begin experimenting with new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has actually carried out internal US flights utilizing a mix of 80 % petroleum based fuel and 20% biofuel made from cooking oil. This mixture, it is declared, can cut damaging emissions by 10%.

One really motivating advancement has been the relocation far from biofuels which compete head on with food consumers consequently avoiding a cost spiral. Not so long ago, a surge in usage of biofuels in cars and trucks triggered a spike in maize rates as US farmers diverted excessive corn to fuel processing.

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