Airlines Focus On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum

It's bad enough for some propeller planes to be described as being powered by elastic band. Now the skeptics could start having a dig at commercial aircraft flying on whatever from cooking oil to melted algae.


With the civil air travel market under increasing pressure from rising oil prices and ecological legislation, the race is on to discover viable alternatives to standard kerosene and these so far appear to boil down to various kinds of biofuel.


Not remarkably, the first trials of alternative fuel were started by British aviation pioneer, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic started London to Amsterdam flights with restricted biofuel usage in 2008. This was rapidly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each utilized different blends of routine fuel and bio derivatives including some from made from jatropha which can grow in soil thought about too poor 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 candidates for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to dry spell and bugs, and produces seeds containing 27-40% oil.


Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aeronautical major Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation relocated to carry out research and development into the usage of biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airline Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would serve as tactical experts for the task.


The most recent airline company to begin experimenting with new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has conducted internal US flights using a blend of 80 % petroleum based fuel and 20% biofuel made from cooking oil. This mix, it is claimed, can cut damaging emissions by 10%.


One truly encouraging development has actually been the relocation far from biofuels which compete head on with food customers thus avoiding a price spiral. Not so long earlier, a rise in usage of biofuels in automobiles caused a spike in maize costs as US farmers diverted excessive corn to fuel processing.


Hopefully in the future, airline companies and drivers will focus biofuel consumption on non-food sources such as jatropha and algae. It would be a combined blessing certainly if some individuals wound up starving just to please another person's green credentials.