Airlines Focus On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum

It’s bad enough for some propeller aircrafts to be described as being powered by elastic band. Now the cynics could begin having a dig at business airplane flying on everything from cooking oil to melted algae.

With the civil aviation industry under increasing pressure from rising oil costs and environmental legislation, the race is on to discover viable alternatives to standard kerosene and these so far appear to boil down to numerous 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 restricted biofuel use in 2008. This was rapidly 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 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 family Euphorbiaceae.

In 2007 Goldman Sachs cited Jatropha curcas as one of the finest 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 major Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation relocated to perform research study and development into using biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airlines Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would act as strategic consultants for the project.

The most recent airline company to begin try out new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has conducted internal US flights using 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 truly motivating advancement has actually been the relocation far from biofuels which compete head on with food customers therefore avoiding a cost spiral. Not so long earlier, a rise in usage of biofuels in cars and trucks caused a spike in maize costs as US farmers diverted excessive corn to .

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