Airlines Focus On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum

It's bad enough for some prop planes to be explained as being powered by elastic band. Now the skeptics might start having a dig at commercial aircraft flying on everything from cooking oil to melted algae.


With the civil aviation market under increasing pressure from increasing oil costs and environmental legislation, the race is on to find viable options to traditional kerosene and these up until now seem to boil down to numerous kinds of biofuel.


Not remarkably, the first trials of alternative fuel were started by British air travel pioneer, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic began London to Amsterdam flights with minimal biofuel use in 2008. This was rapidly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each used 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 foodstuffs.


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 dry spell and insects, and produces seeds including 27-40% oil.


Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aerial major Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation moved to carry out research study and advancement into making use of biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airlines Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would function as tactical specialists for the project.


The newest airline company to begin try out 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 declared, can cut harmful emissions by 10%.


One really encouraging advancement has actually been the relocation far from biofuels which complete head on with consequently avoiding a price spiral. Not so long ago, 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, airline companies and vehicle drivers will focus biofuel consumption on non-food sources such as jatropha and algae. It would be a mixed blessing certainly if some individuals wound up starving simply to please another person's green credentials.