Airlines Concentrate On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum

It’s bad enough for some to be referred to as being powered by elastic band. Now the skeptics might start having a dig at commercial airplane flying on everything from cooking oil to liquefied algae.

With the civil aviation market under increasing pressure from rising oil costs and environmental legislation, the race is on to discover practical options to traditional kerosene and these up until now seem to come down to different types of biofuel.

Not remarkably, the first trials of alternative fuel were started by British air travel pioneer, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic started 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 routine fuel and bio derivatives including some from made from jatropha curcas which can grow in soil considered too bad for growing mainstream foods items.

Jatropha is a genus of around 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 best prospects for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to drought and insects, and produces seeds including 27-40% oil.

Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aeronautical significant Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation transferred to carry out 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 function as tactical consultants for the task.

The latest airline company to start explore new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has conducted internal US flights utilizing a blend of 80 % petroleum based fuel and 20% biofuel made from cooking oil. This mixture, it is claimed, can cut damaging emissions by 10%.

One actually motivating development has actually been the relocation away from biofuels which compete head on with food customers thus avoiding a rate spiral. Not so long earlier, a rise in use of biofuels in cars and trucks triggered a spike in maize prices as US farmers diverted too much corn to fuel processing.

Hopefully in the future, airlines and motorists will focus biofuel consumption on non-food sources such as jatropha and algae. It would be a blended blessing undoubtedly if some individuals wound up starving simply to satisfy another person’s green qualifications.