It's bad enough for some prop planes to be described as being powered by elastic band. Now the cynics might start having a dig at commercial airplane flying on whatever from cooking oil to liquefied algae.


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


Not remarkably, the first trials of alternative fuel were started by British aviation leader, Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic began London to Amsterdam flights with limited biofuel usage in 2008. This was quickly 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 thought about too bad for growing mainstream foodstuffs.


Jatropha is a genus of roughly 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 finest candidates for future biodiesel production. It is resistant to drought and insects, and produces seeds consisting of 27-40% oil.


Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aerial significant Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation relocated to perform research study and advancement into making use of biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Brazilian airlines Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would function as strategic specialists for the job.


The most current airline company to start explore new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has actually conducted internal US flights using a blend of 80 % petroleum based fuel and 20% biofuel made from cooking oil. This mix, it is declared, can cut hazardous emissions by 10%.


One actually motivating development has actually been the relocation away from biofuels which compete head on with food customers thereby avoiding a price spiral. Not so long ago, a rise in usage of biofuels in cars caused a spike in maize prices as US farmers diverted excessive corn to fuel processing.


Hopefully in the future, airlines and motorists will focus biofuel intake on non-food sources such as jatropha and algae. It would be a mixed blessing indeed if some individuals ended up starving just to satisfy another person's green qualifications.