Airlines Focus On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum

It's bad enough for some prop airplanes to be explained as being powered by rubber bands. Now the skeptics could begin having a dig at commercial aircraft flying on whatever from cooking oil to liquefied algae.


With the civil air travel market under increasing pressure from rising oil costs and ecological legislation, the race is on to discover practical options to standard kerosene and these up until now seem to come down to various types of biofuel.


Not surprisingly, the first trials of alternative fuel were initiated by British aviation leader, 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 various 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 foods.


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 prospects for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to dry spell and bugs, and produces seeds consisting of 27-40% oil.


Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aerial significant Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation relocated to bring out research study and development into the usage of biofuels to airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airline companies Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would function as strategic specialists for the project.


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


One actually motivating advancement has been the move far from biofuels which complete head on with food consumers consequently preventing a cost spiral. Not so long back, a surge in use of biofuels in vehicles caused a spike in maize costs as US farmers diverted too much 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 blended blessing certainly if some individuals wound up starving simply to satisfy another person's green credentials.