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

With the civil aviation market under increasing pressure from rising oil costs and environmental legislation, the race is on to find feasible options to traditional kerosene and these so far seem to boil 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 restricted biofuel usage in 2008. This was rapidly followed by Lufthansa and Air New Zealand who each utilized various blends of routine fuel and bio derivatives including some from made from jatropha which can grow in soil considered too bad for growing mainstream foods items.

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

Recently, US aerospace giant Boeing, Brazilian aerial significant Embraer and the Sao Paulo state Research Support Foundation transferred to carry out research study and advancement into using biofuels to power jet airliners. It was reported that Azul, Gol, TAM and Trip would act as tactical experts for the job.

The newest airline to begin try out new fuels is the Alaska Air Group which has actually performed internal US flights utilizing 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 move away from biofuels which contend head on with food customers thereby avoiding a rate spiral. Not so long earlier, a surge in use of biofuels in cars caused a spike in maize rates as US farmers diverted too much corn to fuel processing.

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