Airlines Focus On Biofuel Trials Gather Momentum

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


With the civil air travel industry under increasing pressure from increasing oil prices and ecological legislation, the race is on to discover viable options to conventional kerosene and these so far seem to boil down to different kinds of biofuel.


Not remarkably, the first trials of alternative fuel were started by British air travel pioneer, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic started London to Amsterdam flights with limited biofuel use in 2008. This was quickly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each utilized different blends of regular fuel and bio derivatives including some from made from jatropha curcas which can grow in soil considered too bad for growing mainstream foods items.


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 mentioned Jatropha curcas as one of the best candidates for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to dry spell and insects, and produces seeds including 27-40% oil.


Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aeronautical significant Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation transferred to bring out research study and development into making use of biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airlines Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would serve as strategic specialists for the task.


The most recent airline to begin experimenting with 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 mix, it is declared, can cut hazardous emissions by 10%.


One truly motivating advancement has been the relocation far from biofuels which contend head on with food customers therefore avoiding a price spiral. Not so long ago, a surge in usage of biofuels in automobiles triggered a spike in maize prices as US farmers diverted too much corn to fuel processing.


Hopefully in the future, airlines and motorists will focus biofuel usage on non-food sources such as jatropha and algae. It would be a blended true blessing undoubtedly if some individuals ended up starving just to satisfy somebody else's green qualifications.