Airlines Concentrate On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum

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


With the civil aviation market under increasing pressure from increasing oil prices and environmental legislation, the race is on to find feasible options to conventional kerosene and these up until now appear to come down to numerous types of biofuel.


Not remarkably, the very first trials of alternative fuel were initiated by British aviation pioneer, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic started London to Amsterdam flights with restricted biofuel use in 2008. This was quickly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each used various blends of and bio derivatives consisting of some from made from jatropha which can grow in soil thought about too bad for growing mainstream foods items.


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 cited Jatropha curcas as one of the best candidates for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to drought and insects, and produces seeds containing 27-40% oil.


Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aeronautical significant Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation moved to carry out research study and development into using biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airline companies Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would function as strategic experts 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 mix, it is claimed, can cut harmful emissions by 10%.


One truly motivating development has been the move away from biofuels which compete head on with food customers consequently preventing a price 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 combined blessing certainly if some people wound up starving just to satisfy somebody else's green credentials.