Airlines Concentrate On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum > 자유게시판

It's bad enough for some propeller airplanes to be explained as being powered by rubber bands. Now the cynics might begin having a dig at industrial airplane flying on everything from cooking oil to melted algae.

With the civil aviation industry under increasing pressure from increasing oil rates and ecological legislation, the race is on to discover feasible options to standard kerosene and these up until now appear to come down to various types of biofuel.

Not remarkably, the first trials of alternative fuel were initiated by British air travel leader, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic began London to Amsterdam flights with minimal biofuel usage in 2008. This was rapidly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each used various blends of routine fuel and bio derivatives consisting of some from made from jatropha which can grow in soil considered too poor for growing mainstream foods.

Jatropha is a genus of roughly 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 dry spell and bugs, and produces seeds including 27-40% oil.

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

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

One really encouraging advancement has actually been the move away from biofuels which contend head on with food consumers therefore preventing a rate spiral. Not so long earlier, a rise in usage of biofuels in automobiles caused a spike in maize costs as US farmers diverted too much corn to fuel processing.

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