1 Airlines Concentrate On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum

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It's bad enough for some prop aircrafts to be described as being powered by rubber bands. Now the cynics might begin having a dig at commercial aircraft flying on whatever from cooking oil to melted algae.

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

Not remarkably, the very 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 use in 2008. This was quickly 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 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 jatropha curcas as one of the very best candidates for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to drought and pests, and produces seeds including 27-40% oil.

Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aeronautical major 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 companies Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would act as tactical specialists for the task.

The most recent airline to start try out 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 mix, it is declared, can cut damaging emissions by 10%.

One truly encouraging advancement has actually been the move far from biofuels which complete head on with food consumers thereby preventing a cost spiral. Not so long ago, a rise in use of biofuels in cars and trucks triggered a spike in maize costs as US farmers diverted too much corn to fuel processing.

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